Dear readers, this is no place or occasion to reply to the charges brought up against Islam and its followers. Anyone who has sincerely attempted to study the faith and its history would agree that it has nothing to do with extremism or violence. In fact, unlike the Catholic Church that went through a tumultuous transition with unpleasant epochs such as the Inquisition and encounters with other faiths and sects, Islam has always remained faithful to its original message of peace.
That said, I must emphasise that it’s important for the Muslims everywhere to respond to all allegations and abuse against their faith and the Prophet with utmost restraint and reason. Of course, they have a right to protest any attempt to denigrate their faith and the Prophet. But any violence in the name of such protests would only prove Islam’s critics right. The best reply to the Pope’s diatribe would be a sincere and systematic movement to present the real face of this great religion before the world. This is a war of ideas. We should take on this ideological challenge with ideas. So this unfortunate episode must not drive the Christians and Muslims further apart. It should bring them closer and open a constructive dialogue between their great faiths.
Azyumardi said Benedict’s statement reflected the rocky Muslim-Christian relations in the past. However, this conflict should not renewed, he said, considering the current fragile relations between the Islamic world and the West after George W. Bush declared his war on terror.
Former Muhamadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif said Muslims should be cool-headed and examine what the pope said in its entire context.
"Whatever the circumstances, he as a pope should not have said things like that," he told AFP.
Al Maschan Musa, who heads the main chapter of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, called the Pope’s statement "regrettable" but declined to comment further, saying that he wanted to first study the entire statement.
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