On Irresponsible Journalists
It is not enough that the media has helped stir the pot over remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI. It is not enough that they are amplifying the Muslim anger and rage. Now the Associated Press makes sure to point out - in detail - that a statement made by the Pope "stops short of an apology". Great idea. Make sure you spin this up even more, folks. Make sure that more churches are bombed, more rioting ensues and people start dying left and right. Make sure you set up the confrontation.
But the statement stopped short of the apology demanded by Islamic leaders around the globe, and anger among Muslims remained intense. Palestinians attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza over the pope's remarks Tuesday in a speech to university professors in his native Germany.
In a broader talk rejecting any religious motivation for violence, Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
The pontiff didn't endorse that description, but he didn't question it, and his words set off a firestorm of protests across the Muslim world.
The new Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the pope's position on Islam is unmistakably in line with Vatican teaching that says the church "esteems" Muslims.
Benedict "thus sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions," Bertone said in a statement.
He noted that earlier during his German trip, Benedict warned "secularized Western culture" against holding contempt for any religion or believers.
I for one am getting tired of this. Barbaric behavior keeps getting excused. Too many in the West keep blaming the West for the behavior like this. This is not the fault of the West, it is not the fault of anything the Pope said. It is manufactured outrage meant to provoke more and more apologist behavior from the useful idiots in the West. In reality, it has nothing to do with religion, only with politics. Certain people can be utterly relied upon to jump onto the self-loathing bandwagon. Certain people can be utterly relied upon to take the culturally chauvinistic stance that the "Muslim Street" only does what it does because of what we provoke them to do.
Certain utterly reliable people led by the utterly reliable irresponsibility of the Western media, unfortunately.
Frankly, at this point, I can no longer conceive of any action the West can take that will not provoke "Muslim Rage". I can think of no words that anyone in the West can say or write that will not provoke immediate shrieks demanding an apology. Frankly, I am sick to death of it. Assisted by the media and the useful idiots in the West, we are heading relentlessly toward a crisis. No that's wrong. Not assisted; led by.
The calls for the Pope to be beheaded are already circulating. The rioting is starting. The frenzy is building pumped up and pimped by an irresponsible media machine that is increasingly unaccountable for the death and destruction it is causing. I am disgusted with the people who are doing this. I am sick of the apologists, I am sick of the journalists, I am sick of the thuggish behavior of too many so-called leaders. Especially the ones hiding behind a religious facade in their quest for temporal power.
It is time to stand up and say, "Enough"! It is time to stop excusing the behavior and hold these people to the same standards demanded of the West. It is time to stop blaming the West for the actions of the people who are acting in a barbaric fashion. It is time to start holding the media accountable for the murder and mayhem they are stirring up. It is time to stop this. Before we all go off a cliff.
Media, World news | Gaius Saturday, 16 September , 2006
By A Blue Star Mom, Saturday, 16 September , 2006 @ 5:51 pm
How can this one pass without a comment?
You are so right! And I have a feeling that this one is going to come back to bite the radical Islamists and the journalists who feed their rage. A billion Catholics are not going to take kindly to photos of their spiritual leader being burned in effigy. Even as the Pope’s words were taken out of context, the reaction by radical Islamists kind of proves his point, doesn’t it?
This could turn out to be a very good thing.