Through Force or Faith? — Page 78
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 78 interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue. In the seventh conversation edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that S u rah al-Baqarah, 2:256 reads: ‘There is no compulsion in reli- gion’. According to the experts, this is one of the chapters of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Quran, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the ‘Book’ and the ‘infidels’, he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying … II Then the Pope says further: The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. ‘God’, he says, ‘is not pleased by blood—and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever