The Blessed Balance Between Reason and Religion – part 2: Framing the whole thing

And yes, there we are: the Vatican has offered their apologies, but since he hasn’t done that himself it’s not enough for everyone. But let’s go back to the heart of the matter. The core of the pope’s message was:

[T]he world’s profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures.

In this he is attacking secularism with his exclusion of faith from the realm of reason but also Islam because of (in his view) the exclusion of reason from the realm of faith. This might partly be the case but his examples were not correct (not historical and not for the present) so in that view you can consider his speech as unjust, insulting and certainly stupid. What is more striking however, and I can imagine the Vatican is surprised by this, how this speech is immediately framed as either ‘anti-islam’ or ‘the truth about islam’. But in anyway related to Islam, so we can speak of Islamizing the Pope’s speech.

First of all the reactions of Muslim leaders (and their constituency) in different parts of the Muslim world. I guess some of them with reading the Pope’s speech very well, immediately saw the insult. Juan Cole points to (post-)colonialism in order to explain the outrage:

Muslims were colonized by Western powers, often for centuries, and all that period they were told that their religion was inferior and barbaric. They are independent now, though often they have gained independence only a couple of generations (less if you consider neocolonialism). As independent, they are finally liberated to protest when Westerners put them down.

There is an analogy to African-Americans, who suffered hundreds of years of slavery and then a century of Jim Crow. They are understandably sensitive about white people putting them down, and every time one uses the “n” word, you can expect a strong reaction. In the remarks the pope quoted about Muhammad, he essentially did the equivalent of using the “n” word for Muslims. It is no mystery that people are protesting.

That might be (part of) a possible answer. Another thing is that we have to look for the reasons Muslim leaders may have for the political exploitation of this speech. The fact that there are protests is of course in itself not the problem, the fact that there are churches under attack, is of course. Why is it that this happens in the Palestinian areas? Why is it so important in Iraq? Olivier Roy has asked similar questions earlier with the Cartoon Affair:

Popular protests in the Muslim world, particularly the Middle East, are similarly politicized. It is not by chance that the outcry was strongest in three places where the European Union is most involved. Palestinians in Gaza found a good opportunity to slam the European reluctance to acknowledge the electoral victory of Hamas, not to mention loosen the purse strings on financial aid. In Pakistan, the same religious coalition that supports the Taliban and Al Qaeda seized upon the cartoon affair as an opportunity to attack Europe and NATO for progressively replacing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. And Syria is taking revenge for Western pressure to leave Lebanon.

As well as the Pope has some reasons to push his agenda (for example the discussion about the position of theology at German universities), some Muslim groups are taking advantage of this, or to put it differently: pimping offendedness.

The other part of this ‘Islamization’ happens not by Muslims. Consider for example one of the first entries on this issue in Jihadwatch:

Pope: jihad violence is against God’s nature

Anti-dhimmitude from Pope Benedict XVI, who also quoted Byzantine emperor Michael Paleologos saying some decidedly non-politically correct things about Muhammad. “Pope speaks out on jihad, urges talk,” from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

And indeed the got it from AP. The same happened in Dutch newspapers and some so called critical islam blogs. Of course accusations of blasphemy and demands for apologies are not restricted to Muslims, but in someway the seem to stand out. And yes you can blame the media and not only the MSM. For example consider the headline of a NY Times article on the issue (which is by the way a very good article)

Pope Assails Secularism, Adding Note on Jihad

And see the same article appears on the International Herald Tribune:

Pope criticizes Islam’s jihad

No, not only Western media do that: read the same article again on a Lebanese website with the headline that made it on ‘western’ blogs as well:

Pope Benedict, in inflamatory speech, assails all: secularism, Jihad, Islam and the Prophet Muhamad

Let’s return now to the Western media. What’s the use of this islam-framing? Inflamatory headlines sell of course, headlines about Islam too and probably inflamatory headlines about Islam even more. But there is more to it. When people look for information on the internet they most of the time don’t look for texts or video’s that challenge their views but for those that confirm them. When they hear or read about the Pope’s speech and already have a negative view about Islam, they will look for symbols that confirm these views. See for example the comments on Jihadwatch:

The tide is turning, at last.

Or this one:

Make no mistake about it, Pope Benedict XVI understands the nature of islam.

His first Encyclical, “God is Love” is a clear condemnation of killing in the name of God. While not mentioning islam by name, it clearly refers to that ideology.

God is Love

http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/b16deuscaritas.HTM

In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others.

So, even while Islam is not even mentioned it is about Islam and a before that a hopefull phrase that more people see (their) truth about Islam. This strengtens the frame which leads some people to the conclusion that they can rejoice over the Pope’s remarks: consider this remark from a Dutch blogger (my translation):

In particular I find the remarks of the Pope so positive, because they are already emphasized by so many Mohammedanes (Mohammedanen, sic). In Gaza (where else?) already a church is set on fire according to Reuters.

The reason that they can of course is that there are Muslims who react to this in a manner that goes further then the freedom of expression, thereby confirming that ‘all Muslims are the same‘ (Lovely and predictable that they call for his beheading)resulting in the Pope’s clumsy, insulting and inacurate message of reason, tolerance and dialogue being further distorted. Some people realize this and make a plea to get out of this senseless spiral of re-confirming eachothers stereotypes:

And, as usual, they were topped only by the innacurate, misleading and vaguely slanderous response of the Muslim world. It’s been Denmark all over again: Muslim agitators tripping over themselves to be yet more disgustingly ignorant than the offending European bigots, ensuring better than any Neocon pundit ever could that Muslims lose every inch of moral high ground within the first news cycle. Thank you, Mullah Nutsack.

Despite the relatively even-handed response of the political movers and shakers–Pakistan lodging a complaint, various Arab countries sending various messages with their ambassadors to the Vatican–it will come out tomorrow or the next day that the response on the street has been somewhat less diplomatique. It was righteous fury at the mosque on the corner of my street, along with laughable protestations of innocence–Mullah Nutsack has never said anything disrespectful about Christianity. Of course not. Because that would be wrong.

According to all these people (accept the last) the world is divided in two, in black and white, hate and love, truth and lie. So far for the Pope’s message about reason and faith.