Life Is Good For Osama
There was a time when Osama was really worried, because it looked like the US really wanted his head and were in hot pursuit, but then life got a lot easier. These days, he makes do with a couple of videos a year and the rest is downtime.
As Billmon points out he has all kinds of people in the West doing his job for him, including the Pope.
The Vatican can’t even figure out how to apologize: Pope ‘sorry’ for offence to Islam
Reading the statement, new Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope’s position on Islam was in line with Vatican teaching that the Church “esteems Muslims, who adore the only God”.
“The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers,” the statement said.
But Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said the statement did not go far enough and called on the pontiff to apologise in person.
“The Vatican Secretary of State says that the Pope is sorry because his statements had been badly interpreted, but there is no bad interpretation,” Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a senior official from the opposition party told AFP.
Is the Pope sorry for what he said? He’s sorry for the way it was interpreted. This is not a good message. This is not a healing message. This is a message that says “you are too stupid to understand.”
I don’t think that the Pope intended to antagonize Muslims, but he apparently doesn’t understand how the rest of the world views the Office of Pope. Every word the Pope says is recorded and discussed by friends and foes. The Pope, like every world leader, has to be careful what he says, because he is no longer allowed the luxury of speaking as an individual.
4 comments
You’re right. He should be well rested since he doesn’t seem to have to be staying one step ahead of the hunters. As for the pope, again you are correct. He’s not sorry for saying it, just for how some might interpret it.
A lot of people never make the successful transition from being a power in the background to being a public spokesman. It’s amazing how many academics can’t put two words together in a meaningful way in front of an audience.
Equally amazing that a man supposedly Christ’s Vicar on earth can’t imagine walking in another man’s shoes.
Michael has his usual thorough coverage of context on the issue, and it was simply a lack of attention to how his words could be perceived to others. But that inattention is important because he speaks as the leader of the largest Christian denomination in the world. There are people ready to leap on any error and magnify it.