Papal smear Part 2

Show:	Brian Lehrer Show
Air Date:	2006.09.22
Issue:	Pope remarks
Guest(s):	Multiple
Show Info

On the 22nd, Brian Lehrer revisited the controversial remarks of Pope Benedict, in the format of a roundtable discussion. The guests:

• John L Allen Jr (Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter)
• Irshad Manji (author of The Trouble with Islam)
• Fawaz Gerges (author of Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy)
• Reza Aslan (author of No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam)

Notice anything strange about the guest list? Well two things really: not only do you see few who have written critically(*) about Christianity and the Pope in particular (this is a discussion about his mutterings, after all, isn’t it?), but the table is packed with authors hostile or critical of Islam. If you used this glaring detail to guess the obvious about how the conversation went, you would have got it quite right. Here are some opening remarks:

Allen: I think in his own mind it was quite accidental [that Benedict used a quote about Islam rather than Zoroastrianism or even Christianity] …

Aslan: I think there is no question that the Pope’s comment has been taken out of context …

Manji: I think he has been making the point that I have been trying to make but making it in a much more sensitive way … much more nuanced and much more sophisticated … I am going to put that feather in his cap now…

All three went on in their introductory statements to lavish praise further on Benedict (e.g: a fine theologian). The bottom line is that this was not a roundtable on the Papal Controversy but yet another rehash of “What is particularly wrong with Islam?”.

Also, I think someone needs to challenge the “out of context” excuse. I would like to know what context justifies a quote that whatever Muhammad has contributed that is new is evil.

Later in the show Lehrer refers to the incident as one that enraged Muslims. I hope it is just an oversight that he forgot that it is not only Muslims who are outraged by this sort of rhetoric.

(*) Allen has written a book on Pope Benedict.