Even the Pope must must whisper when discussing Islam

From "The Jerusalem Post"

This is the first time I recall where he made an immediate statement. And I'm still struck by it, how powerful it was. ... the Holy Father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said well, there's a fundamental problem with that [analysis] because, he said, in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Muhammad, but it's an eternal word. It's not Muhammad's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it.

This basic difference, Pope Benedict continued, makes Islam unlike Christianity and Judaism. In the latter two religions, "God has worked through His creatures. And so, it is not just the word of God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used His human creatures, and inspired them to speak His word to the world."

Jews and Christians "can take what's good" in their traditions and mold it. There is, in other words, "an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations."

Whereas the Bible is, for Benedict, the "word of God that comes through a human community," he understands the Koran as "something dropped out of Heaven, which cannot be adapted or applied."

This immutability has vast consequences: it means "Islam is stuck. It's stuck with a text that cannot be adapted."

As "Spengler" of Asia Times points out, even the pope "must whisper" when discussing Islam. It's a sign of the times.

More insight into something we need to understand.