Should Pope appease Islam?

No appeasement. Remember Neville Chamberlain.

Millions of muslims are always outraged about something or other, real or imagined, anyway. :sleep:

 

I don't particularly care what the Pope does, honestly. I don't hang my hat on his decisions. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Which Muslims would be 'appeased' by an apology? Why apologize further?

 

Personally I agree with Joshua. I am not Catholic and I am not Muslim and I have very little concern about either system. What the Pope says, and does, has ZERO affect on me. Having said all of that, however, I will answer your points.

==Considering the "fact" that the vast majority of people (Muslim and nonMuslim alike) don't know what he said, or the context he said it in, I would simply ask why should he bother? He is in a no win situation. People will believe about him what they want to believe regardless of the facts. The people protesting in the street have made up their minds (even though the vast majority probably have not actually read his speech and have no idea what he actually said and the context he said it in) and are not going to listen to anything he has to say. So my answer is simple...in trying to appease them he will be wasting his time. He needs to encourage people to read the whole speech and judge it on the merits of what it actually says. Those people who are fair minded and reasonable (Muslim and nonMuslim alike) will see it for what it really is and will not listen to the hype.

==Jesus did not appease the Pharisee, did He? No. If anyone thinks He did they should read Matthew 23. We should not start trouble with lost people just to start trouble, however we should realize that the truth of the Gospel "will" start trouble with many lost people (religious or not). Don't forget that all lost people, of all religions and races, are children of the Devil and enemies of God (that according to Jesus and Paul). As such the truth of the Gospel will offend them and may well cause trouble.

==History is history and it is there for anyone to read. It is up to us to accept history and not try to change it to fit our political, or religious, agendas.

 

There is nothing Pope Benedict XVI can do to appease Muslims, especially the more radical ones, except convert to Islam, and I don't think that's going to happen. He is taking a big risk even visiting Turkey. raying:

 

Why should he apologize? He told the truth!

 

Now there seems to be a war of words going on between al-Qaeda and the Vatican. Interesting..... I'm glad the Pope is in Turkey - I think he is brave to go there and to openly confront human rights issues in the midst of millions of people who hate his guts and wish to do him harm.

 

I don't really think it matters what the Pope does, and I also think you are a bit generous in your assessment about the Pope.

Joseph Botwinick

 

While the Pope does not represent us as baptists, Muslims do see the pope as representing us.

For the sake of Muslims who will encounter Christians trying to witness to them and for the sake of Christians who may face conflict from Muslims for being Christian, I hope that Pope Benedict accurately represents the Prince of Peace with a spirit of reconcilation in the face of misunderstanding.

 

This and Joshua's post is right. Bottom line, the Pope is not our authority, neither is Muhammand last time I checked. Who cares how two false religions interact?

 

Well, maybe we should care, instead of just writing it off as the Pope, he's Catholic, so what he does doesn't matter to Baptists.

My point is, that IF he can do something to alleviate the persecution, murders, beheadings, & torture of our fellow Brothers & Sisters in Christ who live in the Islamic nations, that would be something to care about. Or at least it should be something we care about, IMO.

 

Whether the Pope attempts appeasement or not, his interaction is important to all Christians simply because of the Muslim perception that all Christians are the same -- much as people believe Muslims to be the same.

Knowing that perception is invalid does not change the potential impact of these talks on how Christians are treated in Muslim countries.

 

I would hesitate stating that what the Pope does would have much effect on Christians in Muslim countries. Muslim leaders don't respect any other viewpoints, nor do they permit their parishioners (for lack of the right word) to do so.

And I would draw a huge difference between the equality of these two false religions. There are many Christians, I believe in the RC church and none in Islam. There is much that is good in the RC church and little or none in Islam.

 

Well said and agreed.

 

Both religions are false and wicked ones. Rome has been the enemy of God all the time throughout the history. If you don't know this, you don't know the history. They ( both RC and Muslim) are working very hard to prepare the persecution of God's people, Christians and Messianic Jews. Satan knows that Messiah will come again in the land of Israel, and wants to prevent it.
Adolf Hitler, a devout Roman Catholic, Himler, a devout Roman Catholic did so. Crusade murdered Jews and Non-Catholic True Christians.
All the religions of this world except the True Christians will be united under the leadership of Vatican and Vatican will move to Jerusalem, even to Temple Mount as Jesus said in Mt 24:15 and Paul said in 2 Thess 2:4.
True Christians should pay attention to what is happening at the Satans head quarters. These days Satan works harder than the people of God do.
True Christians owe nothing to Whorish Roman Catholic since they have been fake Christians performing Inquisition, Crusade, Proxy wars, prohibiting Bible reading etc.

 

Too bad Rod Serling didn't think of this!

 

Great post. To those who see a difference between the two faiths of muslim and catholic, which seems to be the majority here, it is beyond me, especially from a spiritual mindset. Saying there is one less evil than the other is kind of like getting an F+ in a college course.