Pope should have taken a balanced approach

YOU’D have to wonder what Pope Benedict had in mind when writing the controversial address he delivered at Regensburg last week.

It’s hard to believe anyone of even moderate intelligence would fail to see it was likely to cause grave offence to Muslims.

Indeed, considering the fact that the Vatican library must house acres of archives on the Crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of heretics and so on, it’s strange he should choose to bypass all this evidence of religious intolerance from earlier times in order to find an obscure quote from a 14th century Byzantine emperor to damn the Prophet Mohammed.

Far better if he had first acknowledged the historical beam in the Christian eye before turning his attention to the mote in the Muslim one.

One other quote in his speech has been largely ignored: “This profound sense of coherence within the universe of reason was not troubled, even when it was once reported that a colleague had said there was something odd about our university: it had two faculties devoted to something that did not exist: God.”

The fact that the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church can make such a joke should send a clear signal to religious fundamentalists of all creeds: lighten up!

Meanwhile, the reaction in many Muslim countries is unfortunate, but hardly surprising.

It highlights, once again, the threat posed by fundamentalists to civil rights and freedom of worship and, frankly, it needs to be challenged.

For example, freedom of public worship is forbidden to non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia.

While there may be some legitimate sensitivity in places such as Mecca and Medina, such a prohibition should not be acceptable throughout the rest of the country.

So, rather than an attack on Muslim beliefs employing theological or religious arguments, we need the UN, the EU and our own individual governments to demand freedom of worship on the grounds of civil rights.

Saudi Arabia would be a good place to start.

Exposure to other faiths should, over time, demonstrate to ordinary Muslims there is nothing to fear from other religions or the discussion of articles of faith.

Peter Molloy

9 Haddington Park

Glenageary

Co Dublin