Not going to happen

Catholic Culture reports the pleading of the Prelate of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. Excerpt:

The same is true with regard to the Muslim community, whose statements about the barbaric acts in the name of their religion practiced against the life, dignity and freedom of Christians were not according to our expectation, knowing that Christians have contributed and fought for this country, living in partnership with their Muslim brothers alongside the Islamic civilization.

Religious fundamentalism is still growing in its power and force, creating tragedies, and making us wonder when the Islamic religious scholars and the Muslim intellectuals will critically examine this dangerous phenomenon and eradicate it by educating a true religious consciousness and spreading a genuine culture of accepting the other as brother and as an equal citizen with full rights.

I applaud the Prelate for his appeal, but there is a big problem. "[A]ccepting the other as brother and as an equal citizen with full rights" is not an Islamic teaching. "The Other" in an Islamic society is at best a dhimmi, not an equal anywhere in society including in a court of law. True, having this status might be reasonably considered better than having an unprotected status whereby you can be killed—dhimmi literally means protected. And that makes sense since they have to pay protection money to keep this status.

But the Prelate is asking the Muslim community to go against the traditional interpretation of the Koran 3:110: "You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient." Traditionally, this has been coupled with the belief that Christians and Jews must be humiliated and not given full status due to their "unbelief". Here's a good primer on this topic.

So in order for the Muslim community to take the Patriarch's words and follow them, Islam will have to be first changed, or you can say "reformed" if you want. Like that will make it any easier. It will have to be admitted that Mohammed was wrong. Yeah, good luck with that.

I myself see little chance of that and NO CHANCE of that while the Islamists are in the strong horse position and decorating airfields with the heads of their conquered foes. Many individual Muslims have come to see that their religion is wrong in the practice of dhimmitude and the subjugation of those with other religions. But ironically, it doesn't help Islam to reform when these individuals convert to Christianity.