[Vision2020] Follow up - Islam the religion of peace!

[Andreas Schou]

> The Church has apologized for the hideous behavior of the inquisition and
> the crusades, which occurred during the eleventh through the thirteenth
> century. Can you point out where the followers of Allah have done the same,
> considering that their reign of terror has run from its inception in 622 up
> through today?

Can you point out a Muslim religious leader with authority similar to
the Pope's? The Catholic Church has the distinct advantage of having a
leader with the doctrinal authority to apologize on behalf of the
organization*. Islam does not.

-- ACS

* Additionally, take a look at some of the mendacious nonapologies
issued by the Catholic Church for some of its greatest atrocities. For
example, the Church's apology for the Albisgenian Crusade, recorded in
the Catholic Encyclopedia, takes this form:

"Properly speaking, Albigensianism was not a Christian heresy but an
extra-Christian religion. Ecclesiastical authority, after persuasion
had failed, adopted a course of severe repression, which led at times
to regrettable excess. Simon of Montfort intended well at first, but
later used the pretext of religion to usurp the territory of the
Counts of Toulouse. The death penalty was, indeed, inflicted too
freely on the Albigenses, but it must be remembered that the penal
code of the time was considerably more rigorous than ours, and the
excesses were sometimes provoked. Raymond VI and his successor,
Raymond VII, were, when in distress, ever ready to promise, but never
to earnestly amend. Pope Innocent III was justified in saying that the
Albigenses were "worse than the Saracens"; and still he counselled
moderation and disapproved of the selfish policy adopted by Simon of
Montfort. What the Church combated was principles that led directly
not only to the ruin of Christianity, but to the very extinction of
the human race. "

This, of course, elides the Church's own contribution to the
Albigensian Crusade's atrocities. The famous quotation, "Kill them
all. God will known his own," was uttered not by an avaricious
nobleman, but by the Papal legate: the Pope's appointed avisor to the
Crusaders. (Further, it was in response to a question regarding how
the Crusaders might avoid murdering their fellow Catholics)