Regarding the pope’s recent comments about Islam [Archives:2006/983/Letters to the Editor]

Paul Kokoski
[email protected]
I wish to commend Pope Benedict XVI for having the courage to express what modern man rarely has in practice the foresight to acknowledge, namely that “violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul”.

Contrary to the claims of Islamic leaders, the Pope's comments were nothing more than a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of the present cycle of violence in the name of religion as well as an invitation to dialogue between religions.

Terrorism is and always will be a show of inhuman ferocity that, precisely for this reason, will never be able to solve conflicts among human beings. Only reason and love are the valid means of surpassing and resolving disputes between people. No situation of injustice, no feeling of frustration, no philosophy or religion can justify such an aberration.

When fundamental rights are violated, it is easy to fall prey to temptations of hatred and violence. Nonetheless, we must keep in check our base impulses and together work to build a global culture of solidarity that restores hope in the future to the young.
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