SOLLY, THOUGH AN ISRAELI AND A JEW, like a good many of his fellow country men was an atheist, however he went further, he was an iconoclast, targeting religion and religious institutions whatever their gods or beliefs. He liked to tell people that his university had a faculty devoted to something that did not exist: God!
Solly explained that religion had of course given thought to theologians as well as to philosophers, historians and men of science, however, kings and politicians had on the other hand not given religion much thought, but throughout history had wielded god and religion as powerful weapons on their road to power.
At the beginning of the third millennium Christianity and Islam found themselves face to face in a conflict that bordered more on ideological concepts than those of faith. Christianity had come into conflict with Islam when Jerusalem was conquered by the second Caliph Omar and continued with the Crusades until the fall of the Christian Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks.
The Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus said out during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402: Show me just what Mohammed 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. The emperor argued against violence, which he believed was contrary to God's nature.
However, Solly explained this position was that of an emperor educated in the tradition of Greek philosophy, which was not the case for Muslims whose God was beyond the reasoning of man. For them God was not bound even by his own word.
Christianity was the European concept of a god imported from the Middle East by Greeks and Romans, spread across Europe by the Roman Empire, transformed and then spread to the New World. The New Testament was written in Greek and nautrally bore the mark of Greek thought.
For him there was little in common today between the god of Abraham and his descendants and that of the Christian Greco-Roman god and the religion built around Western philosophical concepts with reason as its foundation stone. We as Westerners applaud the concept of ‘reason’, but it is not the vision of others, just as intelligent, just as wise in other worlds, parallel worlds, whose right to existence is equal to ours.
Many ordinary Muslims see Christianity as the ally of Zionism, very few see the roots of Christianity in Judaism, or are aware of the so called notion of Judeo-Christian civilization. The fact is that this Judeo-Christian concept is a recent invention that contradicts its Greco-Roman foundation. Throughout Christian history the fact that Christ was a Jew was been given relatively little philosophical thought, after all it was the Jews who had persecuted and crucified Christ with the complicity of the Romans.
Today the leader of the most powerful Christian church, the Pope, has enraged many Muslims by his remarks about Islam. The Pope's attitude towards the Islamic world has been controversial.
John Paul II became the first pope to set foot in a mosque on a visit to Syria. It was a gesture intended to help end centuries of hostility and suspicion between the two religions. Benedict XVI seeks reciprocity, meaning that Christians should have an equal right to follow their faith in Islamic states, without fear of persecution, as Muslims do in the West
Acts and words perceived as insulting by Muslims, result in the killing of Christians and the burnings of churches in Muslim countries. The sensitivity of Muslims about their religion was highlighted by the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. These caricatures were reproduced in certain other countries, causing outrage amongst Muslims leading to riots and other acts of violence.
Mobs in Beirut and Damascus, driven by political agitators in the pay of Syria and Iran, had burnt down the Danish embassies in reprisal for a newspaper cartoon depicting Allah, even the Norwegian embassy was looted, and in Gaza riots had broken out exacerbated by the world reaction to the Hamas election victory.
Religious and political leaders in the West are acutely aware that their words will be transmitted to a worldwide Muslim audience and any faux pas will result in a violent backlash from extremists in the Islamic world.
Pope Benedict as a cardinal was opposed Turkey joining the European Union, as it belonged to a different cultural sphere, and its adhesion would be a grave error against the tide of history.
The Vatican was dismayed that a mere quotation used to illustrate a philosophical argument should have provoked such anger from Muslims.
If Muslims want to enjoy religious freedom in the West, then Christians should have an equal right to follow their faith in Islamic states, without fear of persecution. The hyper sensitivity of Muslims about their religion was made clear by their reaction to the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
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Willing Helpers
The Legacy of Solomon Page 78