Robert Redeker, a philosophy teacher, is in hiding in France after
criticising Islam.
Friday, 29 Sept., I heard an interview on Europe 1 with Robert
Redeker. There has been a
little coverage in
the anglophone media. Much citing of Voltaire: '
Je
ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je suis prêt à
me battre jusqu'à la mort pour votre droit à le dire.'
The article in question had been published in
Le Figaro some days before.
By Saturday, as someone on
Le Figaro's
forum complains, the article had been taken offline. A search takes you to
other opinion pieces with a link to the article, but the links point back
to the
France front page. But
at least this gives the title of the piece - "Face aux intimidations islamistes".
From there it is simple enough to find several websites that give the text:
for example,
prochoix.org.
---
Contrary to the passages which have been continually quoted, the core of the
argument in the
Papal
Address at the University of Regensburg against Islam is the following:
The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion
is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature.
The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a
Byzantine shaped
by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim
teaching,
God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our
categories, even that of rationality.
Islam is not the only thing that Pope Benedict "attacks":
The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms
an integral part of Christian faith has been countered by the call for a
de-Hellenization of Christianity [..] De-Hellenization first emerges in connection
with the fundamental postulates of the Reformation in the 16th century. Looking
at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were
confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is
to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought.
As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as
one element of an overarching philosophical system. [..] The principle of
"sola scriptura," on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial
form, as originally found in the biblical Word.
Protestants no doubt would respond to this through dialogue, rather than
violence, or threats of violence. As indeed would those who hold to 'a
reason
which is deaf to the divine'. (Personally, I don't think I am deaf to the
divine; I
just don't believe in it.)
---
Another interview on Europe 1, Monday (2 Oct), this time with Bernard-Henri
Lévy, who does not agree with Redeker's ideas, but,
again, defends
his right to express them.
The affair can be compared to the Berlin Opera
cancelling performances of Mozart's Idomeneo.
Tariq Ramadan accused some muslim countries of instrumentalisation in their criticism
of the Pope's lecture (news on
France Inter, 19:00 CET 20 Sept.). I
could not find any further details of this. However, Christopher Caldwell wrote about it in the FT of 30 Sept. ("
At the borders
of free speech"),
noting the US state department's recent announcement that it would not revisit
a 2004 decision to revoke Mr Ramadan's visa (see
here and
here)
. Tariq Ramadan contributed to an online forum in
Le Monde
this week and 'writing in the Swiss daily Le Temps, Mr Ramadan accused
undemocratic
Muslim governments of having fomented much of the criticism of the Pope.'
Mr Ramadan is barred from countries like Tunisia, though, as Caldwell
comments 'whether those countries fear him as a liberal moderniser or a religious
radical is subject to debate.'
Caldwell's article was not "Subscriber's Only" when I accessed it, but just in
case, see
Controverse
autour du serpent Ramadan... Curiously enough, this blogger, even
as he quotes Voltaire in his masthead, calls Tariq Ramadan a
'
serpent'...
