When Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger was sworn in as Pope Benedict XVI, a slew of articles in the
European media talked about his past as a member of the Hitler Youth.
The Vatican was quick to step in and tell the world that membership in
the Hitler Youth was mandatory in the Nazi era and that, as a boy, the
pope didn't have a choice. It was a lie. And, perhaps, this early
conditioning shaped the pope's thinking leading to his recent, regular
remarks against Muslims as a people, and Islam as a religion. Known long
before he was elected by the College of Cardinals as an arch
conservative, the pope has indeed lived up to his reputation with his
fanatical views.
Two days after his election, the pope angered the Government of
India talking about restrictions on conversions to Catholicism. There
aren't any, and the one state that had banned conversions to any
religion, Tamilnadu, saw it's then government routed in elections. And
then came the pope's subsequent remarks against Muslims, beginning with
his comments on the Crusades. While his predecessor, John Paul II had
sent a delegation of Catholic monks on foot to Jerusalem in 2000 and
apologized to the Muslim world about the Crusades, Pope Benedict talked
about the Crusades having been moral and divinely inspired. One could
say that the capture of Jerusalem, which was gleefully described by the
Crusaders as a city that they left with an inch of blood across it,
could only be seen as "moral" and "divinely inspired" by someone with a
terribly perverted way of thinking. And yet, the world kept quiet at the
time, unwilling to voice anger at the remarks of the leader of the
largest faith.
Whether it was this silence from the world that encouraged the
Pope's recent remarks ostensibly quoting a 14th century Byzantine
Emperor, Manuel II Paleologos, �Show me just what Muhammad brought that
was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as
his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,� or whether he
chose to test the limits of what the world would accept in his
denunciations of another religion is something that only he is aware. As
one who watches the Vatican and it's moves, this writer can only say
that this was expected. Hypocritically, for someone who endorsed the
bloody wars that saw hundreds of thousands killed, the pope continued
with his speech, telling his flock, �Violence is incompatible with the
nature of god and the nature of the soul.� This anti Muslim sentiment is
not new. In an interview to the French newspaper, Le Figaro, some years
ago, when asked about the proposal to accept Tkey as a member of the EU,
he had remarked, "Turkey always represented another continent during
history, always in contrast with Europe."
Benedict was elected to his position because his peers felt that he
had the authority to galvanize the Catholic faith, dying as it was in
Europe and most of the world with the exception of the Americas. It was
believed that his aggressively anti secular attitude would help recover
those who had left the Catholic faith either to join Evangelical
churches, or, to be atheists or agnostics. There were also reformist
Catholics who had problems with his defense of pedophile priests in his
arguments that they should not be subject to prosecution and punishment.
All of this shows the world, very clearly, that it deals with an
arrogant, almost racist man with scorn for anything that does not come
under the religion whose head he is.
And yet, there is a way to deal with him. Though the Vatican is an
independent nation in name, it's location in Italy gives those who
disagree with the Pope's remarks an avenue to silence him. Some years
ago, when Disney Corporation put up a display that angered Muslims
worldwide, the late Sheikh Sultan bin Ziyad Al Nahyan publicly warned
Disney Corporation that it could be expelled from the UAE if it did not
mend it's ways. Italy sells a vast quantity of luxury goods across the
Middle East and in wealthy Far Eastern countries like Malaysia, and
Indonesia. From Ermenegildo Zegna clothing to Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Ferrari
and Maserati cars, dozens of brands of perfumes, food products like
pasta, olive oil etc Italian companies sell billions of dollars worth of
goods to Muslim countries. A boycott of these goods by Muslims would
effectively force the pope to shut up. He may not apologise for the
current comments that he has made as many Muslims, including moderates
are demanding, but it is certain that he would not openly advocate anti
Muslim ideas even though he is certain to harbour them in his mind.
Not getting the Pope to stop would be a danger not just to Muslims
but to the world's secularists as well. Remarks of this kind by the head
of the biggest Christian denomination could only swell the ranks of
fundamentalists among Muslims. 900 years after the Crusades took place,
they have the effect of angering Muslims across the world. Indian
Muslims whose ancestors had nothing to do with those bloody wars,
consider Salahuddin Ayubi a hero. In Syria and Egypt, Sultan Baybars,
who completely routed the Crusaders and finally wiped their presence out
is spoken about as if he were alive today. The Pope's views would,
therefore, only fuel the horrors of jihad, something that he ostensibly
seeks to oppose. A recent US government release said quite clearly that
80% of the victims of Jihadi violence across the world were Muslims. If
Benedict XVI really believes that jihad is a bad thing, he should shut
up. If he does not, then it is necessary for the world to force him not
to pontificate on matters that he has no knowledge of, and where his
prejudices continuously harm people across the world. A peaceful
economic boycott of Italian goods would achieve this quite swiftly.
