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September 20, 2006

Former Archbishop: Pope Was Right

So much for collapsing in fear (h/t: PJM):

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to "violent" Islam in a lecture in which he defends the Pope's "extraordinarily effective and lucid" speech.

Lord Carey said that Muslims must address "with great urgency" their religion's association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the "clash of civilisations" endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

"We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times," he said. "There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths."

Lord Carey, seem to know the Islamic faith and culture quite well.

Lord Carey, who as Archbishop of Canterbury became a pioneer in Christian-Muslim dialogue, himself quoted a contemporary political scientist, Samuel Huntington, who has said the world is witnessing a "clash of civilisations".

Arguing that Huntington's thesis has some "validity", Lord Carey quoted him as saying: "Islam's borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power."

As they say, read the whole thing.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at September 20, 2006 12:54 AM | TrackBack
Comments

"Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power."

Exactly.

Posted by: Anonymous for now at September 20, 2006 05:31 AM

And, as Anne Applebaum so rightly identifies, even if we were to disagree with the former Archbishop's opinion of Islam, we in the civilized world should stand shoulder to shoulder in defending his right to say it.

Posted by: iconoclast at September 20, 2006 09:01 AM