George Pell used to be the Archbishop in my diocese, assuming I was actually still a practising or even vaguely interested Catholic rather than one who was put off the whole show in childhood by arch-conservative troglodytes like him, among other people and things in the Church.
But he may have a fair point here about accepting expressions of Islamic extremism, although he said this in the context of presenting Christianity as under siege.
I have edited this article to focus on the extremist Islamic aspect. The full article is in the link.
Pell believes West now scared of criticising IslamBarney Zwartz
March 12, 2009 - 10:01PM
The West has become scared to criticise Islam and accepts death threats by Muslim extremists as normal, Cardinal George Pell has suggested in a speech in England.
The outspoken Catholic Archbishop of Sydney said laws intended to promote tolerance were being used to stifle debate, which was “fermenting intolerance under the surface”.
“Many in the West have grown used to practising self-censorship when it comes to Islam, just as we seem to accept that ex-Muslims who criticise Islam and extremism, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, require round-the-clock police protection,” he said.
“You can be persecuted for hate speech if you discuss violence in Islam, but there is little fear of a hate-speech prosecution for Muslim demonstrators with placards reading ‘Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas’.”
http://www.watoday.com.au/national/pell-believes-west-now-scared-of-criticising-islam-20090312-8whz.html?page=-1
If the Pope pronounced a death sentence on some renegade Catholic or, worse, a non-Catholic who happened to be a Muslim who had offended the Pope or his view of Catholicism, as some Islamic mullahs do on members of their own faith or infidels who offend them, would that be accepted in the West, or by the Islamic community anywhere, as a legitimate?
Yeah, right!
I think we in the West have lost the plot, and risk through our well-intentioned commitment to tolerance being overwhelmed by the forces of intolerance.
