Saturday, April 12, 2008

Unfortunate Papal Headline Contest...

The Telegraph does well:

Pope will pray for terrorists at Ground Zero

I do hope that he doesn't pray for them in the same way that one might pray for rain. ;)

Anyway, the article explains:
The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week.
The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: "Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.
"God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance".
The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world, which has already attacked the Pope for publicly converting Magdi Allam, a journalist and one of Italy's most high-profile Muslims, at Easter.
Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of trying to provoke "a new crusade" against Islam.
One has to wonder why the emphasis seems to be on exaggerating the extent to which the Pope's actions might anger the Muslim world. Furthermore, I don't see that there's anything in the prayer that'd upset a Muslim... unless said Muslim was already a supporter of those terrorists... and consequently probably doesn't need much motive to work up a lather of hatred and aggression.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is most interesting to me is how much we (Western Civilization At Large) actually are afraid of of upsetting Muslims. No matter how much we couch the fear in language of political correctness, or inclusivism, or world peace, or whatever, we are afraid.

And that says a lot about Muslims.

Anonymous said...

The media has made it their task to emphasize the possibility of upsetting the Muslim world both out of a sense of PC run amuck, and a genuine fear (well placed,)of much of the Muslim world.

But another reason is that some newsmen like to edge into news-MAKER territory by disingenuously worrying that something said or done might provoke a reaction, and than quoting or describing that something endlessly until the reaction is finally provked.
The prophets can then stand back and say, SEE? We told you [the speech at Regensburg is a good example] was going to cause trouble.