News+and+politics religion philosophy the cynic librarian: Pope Backs Muslim/Xtian Dialog on Crusades and Moslem Empire

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Pope Backs Muslim/Xtian Dialog on Crusades and Moslem Empire

In a move that perhaps reflects Pope Benedict 16's attempt to back off of Islamophobic elements within Catholicism, the Vatican announced plans to open dialog and discussions worldwide with Christian and Islamic scholars on the topic of the so-called Christian Crusades and Islamic expansionism in Medieval Europe. ...

According to Stacy Meichtry

In the midst of global anger over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the Vatican's top mediator with Islam is pushing to heal long-festering historical wounds -- the Christian Crusades and the Muslim conquests of medieval Europe. “It is a question that needs to be addressed,” said Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in an interview Thursday (Feb. 16) with Religion News Service. Fitzgerald, who is slated to soon become Pope Benedict XVI's ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, also rejected a call from an Italian lawmaker for the Vatican to lead a showdown with Islam. Instead, Fitzgerald called for Vatican and Muslim scholars to examine the legacy of Christian-Muslim confict to build historical consensus. [my emphasis]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a christian probaganda bullshit. Ultimately the christians want to re-write history to wash their hands from the shame of the crusades. They will meet with a couple of "Muslim" scholars on the pay and they will come up with a resolution absovling the chritian faith and faithfuls from these sins, and that would be another media victory for the christian West.

Anonymous said...

Why would any christian in his right mind apologize for the crusades? They were a series of defensive wars without which Europe would've suffered the same moslem domination as North Africa. It's amazing how little people know of history. Do people realize that as late as the 16th century the mohammedins were literally at the gates of Vienna?