When I first read about what Pope Benedict XVI had said and the angry reactions of Muslims around the world, my reaction was, “This is ridiculous. How come no one has asked the countless radical Muslim clerics who have said far more inflammatory words about Christians, and for that matter all other non-Muslims, to apologise to everyone?”

The Pope is expected to apologise and explain himself that he’s not inciting violence and hatred against Muslims but not the imams? Surely there’s some sort of double standards going on here?

It wasn’t only after I’ve read the following article that I saw the bigger picture:
The pope and Islam – Islam in Europe – MSNBC.com

From the article:

Islam is not a worldwide organization like the Roman Catholic Church, with a clearly defined local, regional, national and global chain of command topped by a general headquarters like the Vatican, whose top man is the pope.

Islam’s Mecca is a focal point for the prayers of millions of believers throughout the world who are themselves divided along various branches of interpretation and social custom. Though imams may be similar to priests or bishops, there is no “pope,” no elected “grand imam,” to whom they all report.

This basically means that while the Pope may represent all Catholics, no one imam can claim to represent every Muslim in the world. There’s simply no equivalent of the Pope in the Muslim world. So whatever the Pope says, it can be inferred that all other Catholics feel the same as well. And there lies the reason why Muslims took such great offence to what he had said about jihad, and also the double standards in the demand for an apology from him.

Which is dissapointing because the gist of what the Pope had wanted to convey was lost. And that is, for all the violence and sins of the Catholic church in the past, using religion as the pretext to oppress and murder is clearly not the answer and it is “unreligious”.

But just as it always has been, the true message is now drowned out by extremists on both sides. Radical Muslims see this as another attack on their religion which justifies their militant stance, and right-wing Christians, Catholics and pundits see the Muslims’ reaction as further proof that no dialogue is possible and that continued war and violence is the only solution.

And round and round we go. This is a reason that while I may follow Buddhist teachings I’m not religious at all. Because if there exists God or Allah or another higher being, why the fuck is He letting this shit happen to our planet?

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