Things are looking up for the West—the new pope is a “clash of civilizations” man

Though he’s soft spoken in the way he expresses it, Pope Benedict XVI has the same basic view as Samuel Huntington of intercivilizational relations, namely that different civilizations, particularly Islam and the West, being fundamentally and permanently different from each other, should not try to blend together in a single society, a condition which makes the society in question a “candidate for dismemberment,” as Huntington has argued, but rather should attempt to stay geographically apart, with each civilization in its own historic sphere. Such prudent apartness is all that Huntington (as well as the former Cardinal Ratzinger) proposes. Huntington does not call for civilizational warfare, as some of his critics ignorantly charge; he calls for civilizational separation so as to avoid war. This is a concept that today’s liberals and neocons, who insist on forcing all nations and peoples into a single world order and can conceive of no other “just” political system, are utterly incapable of grasping. Thus Thomas Friedman, in a column this week, assumes as a matter of course that we must have a “world without walls.”

A news story from last summer quotes his Eminence’s eminently sensible views on the prospect of Turkey’s joining the EU (thanks to Steve Sailer’s site for the link):

Paris, Aug. 11, 2004 (CWNews.com)—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in an interview released on Wednesday that Turkey should seek to join Islamic nations rather than attempt to join the European Union. The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith told France’s Le Figaro magazine that Turkey had always been “in permanent contrast to Europe,” and that it should look to its roots for closer associations.

“In the course of history, Turkey has always represented a different continent, in permanent contrast to Europe,” Ratzinger told the magazine, noting the history of the Ottoman Empire, which once invaded Europe as far as Vienna. “Making the two continents identical would be a mistake,” he said. “It would mean a loss of richness, the disappearance of the cultural to the benefit of economics.” The German-born cardinal said Turkey “could try to set up a cultural continent with neighboring Arab countries and become the leading figure of a culture with its own identity.”

Bravo! Habemus Papam!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 21, 2005 07:59 PM | Send