And so it has begun.

It wasn't that long ago that the controversy of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was all the rage in the mosques. There were boycotts of products and governments. Now the leader of the catholics seems to have dug himself into a corner. Pope Benedict went back home to Germany this month after a long hiatus. During a speech he delivered at Regensburg University, he quotes a book. The book quotes a conversation between Emperor Manuel II and an "educated" persian. Allahu ya3lam you be the judge. Here is an edited version of his speech that I found on timesonline.co.uk

"I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor
Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on, perhaps in 1391,
by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.
The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Koran. . . In the seventh conversation the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that Sura (Koranic chapter) 2, 256 reads: ‘There is no compulsion in religion.’ According to the experts, this is one of
the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under
threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later
and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war . . . He addresses his
interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the
relationship between religion and violence, saying: ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’
The emperor, having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. ‘God,’ he says, ‘is not pleased by blood — and not acting reasonably . . . is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence
and threats . . . To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm,
or weapons, or any other means of threatening a person with death . . .’ The
decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to
act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. Theodore Khoury,
observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this is
self-evident.
But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His
will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. At
this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the practice of religion is
concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that
acting unreasonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it
always and intrinsically true? . . . John began the prologue of his Gospel with
the words: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ This is the very word used by the
emperor: God acts, with logos. Logos means reason and word — reason which is
creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. A profound
encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, between genuine
enlightenment and religion . . . This inner rapprochement between biblical faith
and Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only
from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world
history . . .
Given this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and some significant developments in the East, took on its historically decisive character in Europe. In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world’s profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur — this is the programme with which a theology grounded in biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. ‘Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God,’ said Manuel II, according to his under-standing of God. It is to this great logos, this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures."

Now I don't know what they edited out but if the pontiff couldn't see quoting such a book would lead to problems then i dunno what to say. I will leave you with a paraphrased hadith. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was telling a sahaba that they will come a time when islam will be attacked from all sides. The sahaba was puzzled. He asked if the Ummah will be small in numbers during such times. To which the Prophet replies, " No you will be many." Sahaba continues asking, and what happens to make our ummah stand by when we are attacked. The reply is, The ummah falls in love with dunya and disregard the afterlife.

Do you know that Islam commands the position of the second largest religion in the world? It is an all inclusive faith boosting muslims from Africa, Arabs, Asia, North America, Australia, South Americas etc. We are indeed a weak ummah and the only way we can strengthen ourselves is by educating ourselves in not only the secular but the religious. Especially now that the month of Ramadhan is more or less a week away. During this month, when the gates of hell are closed and the gates of heaven are open, we should strive to be our best. I forget what my macalim used to say. The first 10 days of Ramadhan if you fast in accordance to Islam, you get forgiven ( I think), the second 10 days, the Islamic Ummah gets forgiven and the last 10 days (lailatul Qadr) you are freed (metaphorically speaking I believe your soul is cleansed and your slate is washed clean). Don't quote me on that because I am getting old and I might have forgotten the exact rewards. Anyway my point is that we should strive to be better muslims and strengthen our ummah. Make it your resolution this Ramadhan. There are usually wonderful lectures during this period not to mention the atmosphere itself nourishes and rejuvenates the soul.