Peter Krupa

It seems the Pope has angered Muslims by reading from some 600-year-old text and implying that the Islamic religion is inherently violent. Muslims around the world are enraged and incensed that someone would try to whip up hate against another religion, and we’re all waiting on pins and needles to see if they’ll oblige and prove the Pope’s point by burning down a cathedral and killing a priest or two.

My favorite newsblurb in the above link is from the Guardian:

Benedict’s offence, of course, was recklessly to quote this 600 year-old expression of the point of view of a medieval Middle Eastern potentate. He didn’t endorse it, didn’t say that it was his own view, attributed it in context. And is now told that he has “aroused the anger of the whole Islamic world.” Most of which, probably, had never heard of Manuel II Paleologue before this morning. Perhaps the pope should be careful of bringing such subversive ancient texts to light.

On the other hand, if you cannot, as part of a lengthy and profound academic lecture, cite a 600 year-old text for fear of stirring the aggravation of noisy politicians half way around the world, what CAN you do? We might as well all retreat into obscurantism. And keep our mouths shut, for otherwise, who knows who we might offend. And if, as a result of the outrage, some Catholics get killed or their churches burned down by offended scholars and textual exegesists it might be thought that Manuel’s original point had rather been made.

“Obscuritanism” is a great word.

As they did with the cartoon fracas, the media again is so far only reporting the story superficially: Muslims, as a group, can’t possibly have gotten spontaneously enraged about the Pope quoting the writing of a 14th century academic nobody. The real story, is that a handful of extremist clerics and other Muslim leaders are apparently channeling these obscure allegations to the masses in order to whip up a nice show for the CNN cameras and trample a few poor rioters in Nigeria. Since the cartoon row, this seems it might become a new pattern in Muslim politics, and no doubt some New Yorker editor is on the phone right now assigning a contributor to write an in-depth piece on the phenomenon.

And if they’re not, they should be.