Arther C. Withernee, Correspondent for WEMW
Report 17 September 2006
Back in 1979's British comedy team Monty Python produced the film Life of Brian. It caused an uproar among conservative religious communities who interpreted it as an afront to Jesus Christ. Now the Pope has inadvertently upset Muslims throughout the world with an academic speech given at his old university.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, joining a global chorus of Muslim protest, said Pope Benedict should withdraw the "ugly" comments he made about Islam ( see The Turkish Daily News ). Over recent days we have seen familiar scenes on our TV screens of angry mobs burning effigies and shouting down the Pope in the oh so unenlightened manner to which we have come accustomed. Sometimes, one suspects any excuse to burn and shout is welcome.
The offending quote by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus was "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." Here you can read it all and make up your own mind - find key excerpts from the speech and the Pope's speech in full.
Emperor Manuel II was based in Hagia Sofya when Constantinople was then the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The irony is Atatürk and Turkey addressed these fundamental constitutional concerns decades before. Indeed, in 1935 Atatürk declared Hagia Sofya a museum and flagstone symbol of Turkey's new secular constitution. As US actor Sean Penn pointed out this week on CNN's Larry King Live, today's constitutional dilemmas are so often centred around the separation of church and state.
Again, WEMW asks why PM Erdoğan does not utilise the legacy of Atatürk to lead his Muslim nation in an intelligent way forward regarding religion and state politics? After all, it was Atatürk's secular republic that enabled a simit seller from Istanbul's Kasımpaşa district to become the Prime Minister of the country; an unlikely event under the previous religious Ottoman Caliphate regime. I guess PM Erdoğan sees things a little differently and prefers the route of aligning minarets with bayonets. Oh dear, what a pity it all is.
Arther C. Withernee, Correspondent for WEMW
Report 17 September 2006
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