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Was Pope Benedict Right about Islam?

One of things Pope Benedict will be remembered for is that he quoted the hostile remarks of Emperor Manuel II about Muhammad.[1] Of course, to ask if Benedict was right ‘about Islam’ would imply that he agreed with the quotation. In fact, as protests erupted around the world, he put some distance between himself and those remarks, or at least their tone. The lecture which caused the uproar was not actually about Islam at all but rather about the interplay of faith and reason.[2]

So let us reframe the question. Was Emperor Manuel II right about Islam? The infamous remarks come from a dialogue between himself and a Persian scholar. What he said was "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

While it is easy to see why Muslims would find these remarks deeply offensive, in the cool light of day we might note that the words were so phrased as to invite a reasoned response and were uttered in a context of calm and open dialogue. Did Muhammad, in fact, bring anything ‘new’? And did he ‘command that the faith he preached be spread by the sword?’

Answering these questions is not as simple as it sounds. To be clear, the Qur’an is considered by Muslims as the direct words of God, but those who do not subscribe to Islam generally assume it to be the words of Muhammad. Now, I have often heard my Muslim friends state that Muhammad brought nothing new but rather continuation and restoration. The Qur’an states repeatedly that its message is a continuation of that of the word of the prophets (e.g. 3:84, 3:95 16:123, 6:161, 41:43). Christians with an awareness of history can certainly see precedents for much of Islamic worship practice in the churches and monasteries of that time though it has to be said that the claim that the pilgrimage to Mecca was originally instituted by Abraham and only corrupted later by pagans is not possible to support from any Jewish or Christian sources.

What about spreading the faith by the sword? On the one hand, the Qur’an does include the words kill the polytheists wherever you find them. And capture them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayers, and pay the alms, then let them go their way (Surah 9:5, Itani translation). This text is applied vigorously by splinter groups such as ISIS. On the other hand, it also states There shall be no compulsion in religion (Surah 2:256). The ways in which Muslim scholars have reconciled these two statements is not our concern here, but rather it is that Manuel II described the first of these approaches as both ‘evil’ and ‘new’.

In fact, long before Muhammad, St Augustine justified the use of the sword based on a dubious interpretation of one of the parables of Jesus, though it was some time later when conversion by the sword became common in parts of the West.

Be that as it may, it is a matter of historical record that although Benedict’s citation of Manuel II caused an initial uproar but it also led to a formal invitation to respectful dialogue from a range of Muslim scholars in the form of a letter known as the Common Word initiative[3] which received a very positive response from many Christian scholars and clerics across the world. A fresh move towards calm, respectful and honest dialogue was one of the results of Benedict’s remarks which of course originated in another dialogue at another time.

[1] Manuel II (Dialogue 7 of Twenty-six Dialogues with a Persian) https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/manuel_paleologus_dialogue7_trans.htm  
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regensburg_lecture
[3] https://www.acommonword.com/

Image: By Kancelaria Prezydenta RP - prezydent.pl, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11813191