About the most generous thing I can say about Pope B16’s speech at the University of Regensburg last Tuesday is that he put his foot in it. While it does seem that his quotation of Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, relating to Mohammed, was reported internationally out of context, Cardinal Ratzinger should know that in this day and age, anything he says will be taken down and used as evidence against him.

On Saturday the Vatican Secretary of State issued a statement of clarification, followed by the Pope’s qualified apology at Angelus on Sunday. The quotes, he says, do not reflect his personal thoughts. That sounds reasonable enough, but why use that argument in his “Faith, Reason and the University” address?

At a time when relations between the Christian world and the Islamic world are decidedly tetchy in places, discretion, even from the head of the Roman Catholic Church, is the better part of valour. Which brings us to the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell. Let’s just pour a barrel-full of kero on that scrubfire, hey George?

Interesting debate at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog today, kicked off by an opinion piece from US theological author Karen Armstrong.

For all that, my personal view is that the Pope is probably entitled to the Voltaire defence, and that any worthwhile religion is robust enough to withstand criticism, contempt or ridicule. Christianity and Islam are both robust. There’s no need for over-reaction.

You don’t have to swear at the football and eat a pie to be an Australian, but you do have to believe in democracy, the rule of law and the rights and liberties of others…. Where we have reason to believe that people are not truthfully or honestly meeting that test, we have every right to deny them citizenship, or if by subsequent conduct they show that they don’t meet the test, then we could invite them to forfeit their Australian citizenship.

- from Peter Costello’s infamous Islamophobic address to the Sydney Institute, 23.2.06 (source: AM, ABC Radio)

Which brings us to the case of Tony Labbozzetta, as reported in today’s Sun Herald.
Labbozzetta, best-known as the controversial former chairman of the Australian Soccer Federation and of the wealthy Marconi Club. An Australian resident for many years, he retains his Italian citizenship, and under new Italian electoral laws, expats can stand as candidates in the next election, being held on April 9 and 10.
Labbozzetta is running as a member of Fiamma Tricolore, a political party politely described as “neo-fascist”. Anti-semitism, anti-immigration and other racist policies appear to be part of the MSFT (Movimento Sociale-Fiamme Tricolore)’s platform. They are, however, highly unlikely to do well at next week’s elections, with support running at about 1 per cent. Labbozzetta is listed here on the MSFT’s list of overseas candidates for the Senate.

Does this mean that Tony Labbozzetta should be deported to Italy for espousing un-Australian values?

“There are countries that apply religious or Sharia law; Saudi Arabia and Iran come to mind. If a person wants to live under Sharia law, these are countries where they may feel at ease, but not Australia.”

- Peter Costello, from an address to The Sydney Institute, 23.2.06 (source: AM, ABC)

So there you have it. The aspirant future Prime Minister taking up the cudgels of wedge politics, invoking a bogeyman - Sharia law - that has never been raised by anyone of consequence in Australia before. Most islamophobes in this country would never have heard of Sharia law, let alone understand what it is.

Or perhaps Dollar Sweetie (as the good folk of Crikey call him in honour of his finest hour as a union-bashing barista) is merely playing diversion politics - ie, get the AWB scandal off the front pages…

Alexander Downer, Australia’s foreign minister for the past eight years and a certified Global Village Idiot, has made this country an international laughingstock yet again.

Downer has named ten religious figures to represent Australia in a delegation to Indonesia next month for a summit on Islamic terrorism. The Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj el-Din al Hilaly, is not among the ten.

Downer, exercising government by radio on 2UE this morning, told former country and western artist John Laws that, as quoted by AAP, “We have chosen people who are people of moderation and it’s very important we have the right sort of people involved.”

“We don’t want to have a provocative forum, we want to have a conciliatory and consensus-building forum.”

The Voice of Moderation representing the Roman Catholic Church is the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell. Read what the Catholic Voice of Moderation had to say in his annual address to the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Michigan on October 12.

His address, entitled Is there only secular democracy? contains the following gem of moderation:

It is still very early in the piece, of course, but the small but growing conversion of native Westerners within Western societies to Islam carries the suggestion that Islam may provide in the twenty-first century the attraction which communism provided in the twentieth, both for those who are alienated or embittered on the one hand, and for those who seek order or justice on the other.

Curiously, this did not attract any attention until reported by the Fairfax press on November 11.

The summit, entitled the Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation, will be held in Yogyakarta on 4-9 December. Fourteen countries have been invited to send ten delegates each. Australia is sending six Christians plus one each from the Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic faiths. Islam is being represented by the President of Islamic Councils in Australia, Dr Ameer Ali, who is not a cleric.

Catholic News has a report on the controversy, while Islamic Sydney reproduces two items on the subject by Cynthia Banham at the Sydney Morning Herald. ABC radio’s The World Today ran a story yesterday.