A history of violence

The Roman Catholic Church should use the furor over Pope Benedict XVI’s speech as an opportunity to promote inter-faith dialogue. That’s one good thing that can come out of this controversy, which has once again raised questions about the prospects for religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence among faiths and between religious and secular societies in the 21st century.

Like the editors of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, the Pope didn’t know what hit him after a portion about Muhammad was plucked out of his long speech in Germany on Sept. 12 that was, ironically, about religion and violence, inflaming passions in the Muslim world.

There was, at least, some element of deliberate provocation on the part of Jyllands-Posten. If there was any deliberate intent on the part of the ultra-conservative Pope Benedict to denigrate Islam, he doused such speculation by saying he was "deeply sorry" and inviting Islamic ambassadors to the Holy See to a dialogue in his summer palace on the Roman hillside.

Such dialogues have gained urgency amid the confusion generated in Christian and secular societies by the violence that greeted the Danish cartoons and now the Pope’s academic discourse. After seeing the violent reaction to the Pope’s speech, there were Christians who thought that instead of apologizing, the Pope should have just said, "I rest my case."

But the Pope had not meant to offend, he was merely quoting from a Byzantine emperor, and the part that offended Muslims was just a short excerpt from a long discourse on religion, violence and reason.

Download the entire speech from the Internet, and judge for yourself. Those who gave knee-jerk, violent reactions surely did not bother reading the entire speech for a nuanced appreciation of the Pope’s point.

Now, with churches bombed and an Italian nun and her bodyguard murdered possibly because of the speech, the Vatican can at least turn tragedy into a step toward better understanding among faiths.

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Admit it, Christians have had their own long history of "evil, inhuman" violence. From the Crusades to the Inquisition and the Holocaust, horrific violence has been perpetrated in the name of the Catholic faith.

So the spiritual leader of over a billion Catholics should be careful when talking about religion, reason and violence.

The Philippines’ own modern history started with the arrival of the so-called Cross and the Sword, with Spanish Catholic friars arriving with the soldiers of the Spanish king to win hearts and minds — by force and bloodshed if necessary — from Cebu to Manila.

Back in the early 16th century, this archipelago was predominantly Muslim. Manila was the fortress of a Muslim rajah. A newspaper editor from the Middle East told me last year that even the word "Manila" was derived from Arabic, meaning the hand of Allah.

Muslim rule ended with the arrival of the Spaniards, who planted a cross in Cebu, then proceeded from the Visayas to Luzon with aggressive proselytizing and conversion of the natives to the religion of the "civilized" world, Catholicism.

Colonial rule had its upside: the Cross and the Sword united tribal groups across the archipelago, and a country was born. The colonizers named the new country after the Spanish king at the time, Felipe. Only a few Islamic enclaves in Mindanao resisted being "civilized" by the infidels.

Back then Spanish friars meddled heavily in civilian government, and were prone to abuse of power. See, old habits die hard. Imelda Marcos likes to say that she is descended from a friar.

Around much of the world Christianity spread also through conquest. The religion has been sustained over the centuries by free will, but let’s admit it: violence played a major part in spreading the faith.

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But admit it, too — bombing Catholic churches (and possibly killing a nun in the process) are irrational responses to a scholarly discourse on religion.

There are Islamic groups that have condemned the violence. Yet the voices of reason in the Islamic world continue to be drowned out by the attitude that we have consistently seen in the face of such attacks: you offended us so you deserve to be attacked.

It’s like telling a rape victim that she asked for it by flirting and dressing provocatively.

Since the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, non-Muslims have been trying to understand Islam and its over a billion adherents.

Moderate Muslims like to say that their religion is a peaceful, tolerant one. But it can be confusing when terrorists keep invoking Islam and Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants keep calling on their followers to wage jihad in the name of faith.

It can be confusing when embassies are bombed and 160 people are killed in African riots over the publication of Muhammad cartoons in a tiny Danish newspaper.

Even the press is confused. There have been numerous discussions in the world media over the role played by the press.

At the Global Inter-Media Dialogue sponsored by Indonesia and Norway in Bali at the start of this month, we asked how far we should go in respecting religious sensitivities. If we respect Muslim sensitivities, shouldn’t we give similar treatment to other faiths, such as Buddhism and Hinduism? What about the sensitivities of Jews? Should the Hare Krishna get special treatment?

There are journalists who believe press freedom is at risk when the press begins to shy away from being offensive. And there are those who believe the press should limit itself to providing accurate information, leaving it up to people to decide whether they should react in peace or anger to particular events or statements.

If Muslims demand respect from Christians, shouldn’t we also demand respect from Muslims? Stopping bomb attacks on churches can be a start.

There are many Muslims who are just as appalled as the rest of us by the violent Muslim reactions to slurs, real or imagined, to their faith. They lament that their religion has been hijacked by violent extremists. They complain that they suffer from an image problem and they are being treated unfairly by the world press. At the media dialogue in Bali, the chief editor of the Jakarta Post had to tell participants, "I’m Muslim and I can take jokes."

But these voices of reason are not being heard loud enough. After the furor over his speech, perhaps Pope Benedict can help shine the global spotlight on peaceful Islamic voices.