Pope Benedict Supports Reform Of Islam, Especially In Education.

Note: This post is part of an article concerning the upcoming visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict in November 2006. The Pope is one of the leading voices in promoting the proper reform of Islam, especially the Islam of the muslims in Europe. In the end the muslims in Europe and Australia have no choice but to dramatically reform their local Islam; without it, they will continue to be marginalised (which is not good for them)and eventually they will be expelled. This is the way of History.




"But on that trip, which includes stops in Ankara and Ephesus in addition to Istanbul, Benedict XVI will also encounter Islam, and Turkish Islam in particular.

And the pope made statements of significant interest on this topic in recent days.

He made them while receiving in private audience the president of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Rüttgers, who later related the pope’s comments during an interview with Vatican Radio.

Around a million Muslims live in North Rhine-Westphalia, most of them having come from Turkey.

Jürgen Rüttgers said that Benedict XVI “holds that it is very important for Muslim children to have the opportunity to attend in our schools an hour of instruction, in German, in the Muslim religion, with teachers who have been trained in Germany and under school supervision.”

And not only that: “The Holy Father vigorously called attention back to the necessity for every society to live on the basis of values. These are the same values found in the German constitution, which are founded on the Jewish-Christian West and the Enlightenment.” A positive integration of the new Muslim generations “presupposes the recognition of the rules of the federal Republic.”

It is interesting to link these affirmations from Benedict XVI to the controversy unleashed last March by a statement by cardinal Renato Martino in favor of the teaching of the Muslim religion in the schools in Europe.

Benedict XVI also says he is in favor of this instruction. But he joins it to precise conditions, which Martino ignored.

They are the same conditions to which cardinal Camillo Ruini referred when speaking on the controversy: “in particular it is necessary that there not be any conflict in the content of the instruction with respect to our constitution, for example with regard to civil rights, from religious freedom to the equality between man and woman to marriage”.

It is well known that pope Ratzinger sees in this instruction a decisive vehicle for the integration of Muslims into Western society. He said so in no uncertain terms on August 20, 2006, while meeting with German representatives of Islam in Cologne:

“You guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith. Teaching is the vehicle through which ideas and convictions are transmitted. Words are highly influential in the education of the mind. You, therefore, have a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation. As Christians and Muslims, we must face together the many challenges of our time.”

By coincidence, in recent days in Italy an authoritative Muslim thinker of Algerian origin recently elected to the Italian parliament, professor Khaled Fouad Allam, advanced a proposal that has much in common with the hopes of Benedict XVI.

In a June 14 interview with the daily “il Foglio,” Allam said:

“We must think of a future cycle of education for Italian and European Muslim students that has their faith at heart. And not an exported faith, but one that has been reformulated, because living in Rome or Venice is not the same thing as living in their countries of origin. I am thinking of an Islamic faith that has internalized the principles of humanism and the modern West: the theology that intellectuals like Abdennour Bidar have been reflecting on for years in Turkey, a country that looks toward Europe. One can imagine the creation of a three-year cycle of studies in Italy and Europe, and a two-year cycle of specialization in one of the Muslim countries that adhere to the initiative.”



Comment: It is clearly necessary for a reformed Islam to be taught to local Australian muslims; not in islamic schools(there should not be any), but in state schools. This is not for our benefit, but for the benefit of the muslims.

There is not any equivalence between muslim schools and the catholic school system in Australia. Catholicism is integral to the 'way of life' in Australia, along with other influences. The catholic school system has produced generations of Australians at all levels from Prime Ministers to garbage collectors. There is no 'disconnect' between the values taught in catholic schools and the common mainstream values that are current in Australia.

The same cannot be said for Islam. Koranic Islamic values are not mainstream Australian values, and we are right to dismiss them from our communal life. Therefore it is not in Australia's national interest for muslim children to be educated in them.(If adult muslims want to acquire these values, let them do so, on their own time and expense.) Koranic Islamic values are not a benefit to Australia.

All education in every country is to produce citizens who are properly integrated into that country and its social norms. This principle should be publiclly adherred to by the authorities and, for the integrational benefit of muslim children, they should be educated in state schools.

Is anyone awake in Canberra?