Benedict XVI: "It's The Religion, Stupid"

Thanks for Pastorius for leaving a link in the comments box of a recent post to a Hugh Hewitt interview with Fr. Jospeh Fessio, a friend and former student of Benedict XVI. It is a wide-ranging interview, with many keen insights from Benedict (and Fr. Fessio himself) regarding the precarious state the West finds itself in--not only from the threat of Islam, but from a culture that is becoming increasingly hostile towards the family and the human person. The interview should, therfore be read in it's entirety. This post will focus on the Pope's comments regarding the former. Key excerpt:

HH: Father Fessio, before the break, you were telling us that after the presentation at Castel Gandolfo by two scholars of Islam this summer with Benedict in attendance, as well as his former students, for the first time in your memory, the Pope did not allow his students to first comment and reserve comment, but in fact, went first. Why, and what did he say?

JF: Well, the thesis that was proposed by this scholar was that Islam can enter into the modern world if the Koran is reinterpreted by taking the specific legislation, and going back to the principles, and then adapting it to our times, especially with the dignity that we ascribe to women, which has come through Christianity, of course. And immediately, the Holy Father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said well, there's a fundamental problem with that, because he said in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Mohammed, but it's an eternal word. It's not Mohammed's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it, whereas in Christianity, and Judaism, the dynamism's completely different, that God has worked through His creatures. And so, it is not just the word of God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used His human creatures, and inspired them to speak His word to the world, and therefore by establishing a Church in which he gives authority to His followers to carry on the tradition and interpret it, there's an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations. I was...I mean, Hugh, I wish I could say it as clearly and as beautifully as he did, but that's why he's Pope and I'm not, okay? That's one of the reasons. One of others, but his seeing that distinction when the Koran, which is seen as something dropped out of Heaven, which cannot be adapted or applied, even, and the Bible, which is a word of God that comes through a human community, it was stunning.

HH: And so, is it fair to describe him as a pessimist about the prospect of modernity truly engaging Islam in the way modernity has engaged Christianity?

JF: Well, the other way around.

HH: Yes. I meant that.

JF: Yeah, that Christianity can engage modernity just like it did...the Jews did Egypt, or Christians did to Greece, because we can take what's good there, and we can elevate it through the revelation of Christ in the Bible. But Islam is stuck. It's stuck with a text that cannot be adapted, or even be interpreted properly.

First, let's get the obligatory "cross-posted-at-my-own-blog" crap out of the way. Done. In the can.

So, fellow IBA-ers (and readers), what do you think about the Pope's assessment--especially in light of the post further down about Ayman Taha, the American Muslim who died serving our country? Is Taha proof that Islam can and does produce good men? Or does his case simply mean that some Muslims become good men in spite of Islam?