Quote:
Considered strictly on its own terms, Islam is not a tolerant religion and its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited.
- Cardinal Pell, 2006
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However - when the Cardinal's statement is viewed in the broader context to the arguments being presented:
Quote:
All these factors I have outlined are problems, for non-Muslims certainly, but first and foremost for Muslims themselves. In grappling with these problems we have to resist the temptation to reduce a complex and fluid situation to black and white photos. Much of the future remains radically unknown to us. It is hard work to keep the complexity of a particular phenomenon steadily in view and to refuse to accept easy answers, whether of an optimistic or pessimistic kind. Above all else we have to remember that like Christianity, Islam is a living religion, not just a set of theological or legislative propositions. It animates the lives of an estimated one billion people in very different political, social and cultural settings, in a wide range of devotional styles and doctrinal approaches. Human beings have an invincible genius for variation and innovation.
Considered strictly on its own terms, Islam is not a tolerant religion and its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited. To stop at this proposition, however, is to neglect the way these facts are mitigated or exacerbated by the human factor. History has more than its share of surprises.
Islam and western Democracies
Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
Legatus Summit, 4 Feb 2006
http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/pe...0627_681.shtml
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And like the good Cardinal - I remain vigilant...yet cautiously optimistic.
MOO - but to claim Islam has not been changed over time is to patently ignore the historical record - and to say it will not continue to do so in the future is to advocate an intellectually unsupportable position. I think the greater questions to be considered are not
if but
how it will change and how might we affect that change.
Richard's $.02
