I have to say I am stunned by the way some sectors of the European left appear to be reacting. I had heard they were rallying to Benedict’s defense, which may be true generally, but not in two stories from The Guardian. Both are bitter, bitter attacks on Benedict, who they say is the bigot in profound need of repentance.
Never mind that they quite obviously haven’t understood the speech, that Catholics aren’t blowing up mosques this week or burning anybody in effigy, and that Benedict’s remarks were mild compared to the anti-Christian and anti-Jewish stuff that is routine amongst Muslims.
I am really shocked. I would have thought that the defense of Benedict – at least along the lines that free debate is necessary & isn’t helped by violent temper tantrums when somebody critiques you, and that the spread of Islam by violence is a legitimate talking point – was a no-brainer for liberals, but apparently not.
I hope what I’m reading isn’t a general trend. Perhaps I’ve been naive, but it frightens me about European Enlightenment rationality; what I think we see here are pundits who are more interested in venting pre-existing anti-Catholic prejudice than in taking the case on its merits, and that worries me about their intellectual capacity for the work that needs to be done in the next few decades.
Chris Roberts
