COLUMN: Pope’s remarks ignite protests; Nun’s murder fails to garner attention, apology

By Brenda Zylstra

Every week this column shares the page with the DI’s “On the Quad” feature, a random smattering of student opinions on whatever funny or interesting question the opinions staff devises. Last week at our meeting when someone proposed the question “Why are you going to hell?” all the Christians in the room jumped to their feet, enraged that someone would even consider treating such a significant element of Christianity so trivially. This instantaneous and impassioned protest is the reason an entirely different question was posed.

Actually, that’s not true. The Bush question just seemed a bit funnier.

Had we kept the question about hell, I doubt many would have batted an eye. Christianity is perhaps the most politically correct religion to ridicule, be it via “The Simpsons,” hi-larioust-shirts which declare “Jesus is my homeboy,” or these very pages. It can be pretty maddening, really. Hell is real. It is a place of unimaginable suffering. It is not something to laugh or joke about. That’s what I believe, anyway.

But people are going to make fun of what you believe. They will take cheap shots at what you hold most dear, and they will mock your God. Stand up for what you believe in without wavering, but the moment you act irrationally you and your beliefs have lost all credibility. We all remember the extremist preachers on the Quad a few weeks back; spew a message of hate and intolerance and everyone will dismiss you as crazy.

This is why I am baffled by the reaction to Pope Benedict’s recent faux pas concerning the prophet Muhammad. He quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor who called the teachings of the prophet Muhammad “evil and inhuman.” His words immediately set off a storm of fury, angry riots and demands for an apology, which he promptly offered.

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In his apology, Pope Benedict said he was “deeply sorry” and assured the Muslim community that the quote did “not in any way express my personal thought.” In fact, his speech taken as a whole was meant to call for “an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.” But few read his whole speech. People heard only those three words, and reacted from the gut with anger and violent emotion.

On Sunday, the same day the Pope issued his apology, Sister Leonella, a nun who had worked in Africa for 38 years, was ambushed and shot multiple times by a group of Islamic militants accused of having ties to al-Qaida. Authorities, co-workers and friends believe Sister Leonella’s killers murdered her in response to Pope Benedict’s remarks.

Where is the outraged Catholic community? Where are the demands for an apology for the senseless murder of a woman who strove her entire life to be Christ-like, even using her last breaths to murmur words of forgiveness for her killers? Where are the leaders of the Muslim world, distancing themselves from this sick distortion of Islam?

Silence.

For a perceived insult to Islam, Pope Benedict not only offered an apology but also invited representatives of Muslim countries to his home, in an attempt to talk through the controversy.

For the brutal assassination of a woman desiring only to spend her life serving others, the Islamic community suddenly has nothing to say.

Perhaps it is time for the Islamic community to stop denying the link between Muhammad’s teachings and the violence done in his name, regardless of whether or not this violence is a misinterpretation. Perhaps it is time for the reasonable, thoughtful and peaceful men and women of Islam to stop letting the extremists hijack their religion as well as their good name. I know you exist. Please, make yourself heard before even more people write you and your beliefs off.

Perhaps it is time for Muslims to decide what their true identity is – radical or rational – and make it a reality, before this clash escalates any further, before any more lives are lost, and before our generation becomes so mired in this schism that the only viable option becomes war.