For 'Ali The Pope and "Islam is nothing but fiction"!

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 22, 2006 at 07:06

My dear 3Ali you must pardon me but you are a careless reader.

I never wrote that islam "is nothing but fiction." Islam is a nasty reality to all of humanity and reality is not really fiction. Big difference. And I predict that Islam will be defeated in the market place of ideas because it is irrational and fascist.

Now back to the Pope. Like I said the Pope's remarks are too subtle for your likes and your level of education. And I agree with every word he said.

Is he coward for using an old text to make a point? Not really. You need to study literature and you need to study how to approach literature. I do not plan to teach you literature, but the Pope's appraoch is a very interesting and great way of approaching texts and applying what they really say to our present times.

When I read his quote from the old Greek text I felt that the quote here was in the literary category of what historians would call: Heilsgeschichte. But the more I read the quote the more I'm inclined to believe that this is more in the genre of: apocalyptic literature. Notice the follwing:

1. We are told that this chat between the Persian cleric and the Greek emperor takes place 30 years before the fall of Constantinople. I doubt that such a chat ever took place.

2. So the "sitz im leben" is the life situation before/at the final collapse of the Byzantine empire (compare this with the concern of many Europeans about the fall of Europe to Islam).

3. The issues raised in such text would be clear polemics against Islam (as would be expected) as the driving religious/linguistic/legal forces of the invading Turks (not unlike our today's concern about Islam in the West).

4. So if we think of the text in terms of being a quasi hadith: The isnad would be the emperor, and the matn would be the text. And we know that almost all al-ahadith are bogus but nontheless they give us a hint of the thinking of Abul Qasim aka Muhammad. The same must be understood here that such text gives us an idea about the concerns of the Greeks at that time which are not unlike the concerns of Europeans about Islam now.

5. The chances that such dialogue has taken place is not very likely, but the point was made (back then and now) as you shall see below.

So what really the Pope is saying?

1. Islam was spread by the sword. And this is very correct.

2. Islam is violent and jihad aka al-harb al-Muqadassa or holy war is illogical and evil.

3. Muhammad did not bring any thing new to humanity. He only brought hate and war.

4. Islam is fascist and anti-human and anti-reason.

Care to make any comments my dear 3Ali?

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