Anti Western Sentiment

Cardinal Paul Poupard (as reported in the Catholic Exchange )has commented on the growing anti western sentimant that seems to be growing in the world. These comments were made concerning the murder of Father Andrea Santoro in Turkey, and more broadly on the violent anti-Western demonstrations that have spread through the Islamic world.

Cardinal Poupard noted that the young man who killed Father Santoro had said that he was motivated by outrage over the cartoons published in European newspapers mocking Islam. The killer's confession shows "the climate of hatred" that threatens Christians, the cardinal remarked.

In fact, the cardinal continued, the victim of this killing was a priest who had been working to establish fraternal dialogue with his Muslim neighbors. So the murder illustrates "the mystery of good and evil," he observed. "But evil will not have the last word."

The rising hostility of Muslims toward the West is aggravated, Cardinal Poupard said, by the militant secularism that mocks all religious beliefs. This attitude sometimes produces "acts that some people find gravely offensive," he noted, and the results "can inflame the world."

While I do believe that militant secularism is to blame for much that is wrong in this world, in this particular case I'd have to disagree. I seems that the Islamic world must take the lions share of the responsibility in what is happening. The Belmont Club is reporting that the idea that islam forbids images of the prophet is false. That images of Mohammed is often presented in the Islamic press, and not always in a flattering light.

The claim that the ban on depicting Muhammad and other prophets is an absolute principle of Islam is also refuted by history. Many portraits of Muhammad have been drawn by Muslim artists, often commissioned by Muslim rulers. There is no space here to provide an exhaustive list, but these are some of the most famous ...

The truth is that Islam has always had a sense of humor and has never called for chopping heads as the answer to satirists. Muhammad himself pardoned a famous Meccan poet who had lampooned him for more than a decade.

So if the prophet never forbade the making of images and in fact even forgiving someone who made fun of him, then what is going on? The answer seems to be in that the people who practice islam have a natural aversion toward the west, and what they percieve as a christian culture. This culture is a competing ideology, and as Islam has been spread, not through missionary zeal, but by the sword, then the roots of the issue and the islamic reaction can be completely understood.

Islam sees itself as completely superior to the rest of the world and therefore takes exception when any other culture or ideal critisizes it, as this flies in the face of there superior self image. So the revulsion found in the islamic world is more about saving face than being offended. So the reaction is little different than the drunken bravado of a sailor on shore leave.

Pray for peace, and that the Lord shows the world the true path.