Word: samir
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...most explosive moment of his papacy with a lecture at his old university in Regensburg, Germany, about faith and reason and the risk that Islamic theology makes the religion particularly prone to violence. Even as criticism of the speech spread in both Muslim and Catholic circles, Samir was among the first and most steadfast defenders of the Pope's message about Islam. Indeed, they were the same ideas Samir had been espousing for years. (See pictures from Pope Benedict XVI's first year...
...released by Ignatius Press (the longtime U.S. publisher of Ratzinger's work) that lays out in fine detail the Jesuit's vision of Islam's ancient tenets and current tendencies. Called 111 Questions on Islam, it is the translation of a book-length interview two Italian journalists conducted with Samir in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The priest says that in reviewing the material before the English-language release, he was struck by how little there was to update. "The major points that I laid out are the same today, after more than six years," Samir told...
...Samir says that beyond resolving the political conflicts in the Muslim world, there is much hard intellectual work that needs to be done to combat violence and expand freedom within the religion's ranks. "Islam is living a moment of great intellectual weakness. There is a crisis of thought," he says. "Certain things must be cleared up, ambiguities must be removed to arrive at a reading of the Koran in light of the contemporary culture based on human rights." (Read about the Pope's relationship with Islam...
...Samir sees as one of the great challenges facing Islam a lack of official leadership to certify or dismiss interpretations of what sacred texts say, notably on the question of violence. "There is a need for an authority, unanimously acknowledged by Muslims, that could say 'From now on, only this verse is valid.' But this does not - and probably will never - happen," he writes in response to Question No. 26. "This means that when some fanatics kill children, women and men in the name of pure and authentic Islam, or in the name of the Koran or of the Muslim...
...what about violence, past and present, in other religions? Samir distinguishes Islam-inspired violence from the Crusades, for example, which he says were carried out in the name of Christianity (or for interests of a Christian-led nation) but not driven by any interpretation of the Gospel...