Bishoi Taken to Woodshed by Shenouda

A followup on my earlier posting about Coptic Bishop Bishoi's latest controversy following his daring to venture that Qur'an verses denying the divinity of Christ may not date from the Prophet's lifetime. Go here for the background on the controversy and the man himself.

Anyway, a day after Al-Azhar criticized Bishoi, his boss, Pope Shenouda III, publicly apologized for his errant bishop. The Pope said, "Debating religious beliefs are a red line, a deep red line." He thus acknowledged that while Christians and Muslims naturally disagree about the divinity of Christ, you don't talk openly about it in a Muslim society. And as for Bishoi's reportedly calling Muslims "guests" in Egypt, he suggested he had been misquoted but also said that Copts were the guests because they are a minority. Bishoi's papal ambitions have likely been set back a bit by this round of controversy, which isn't his first.

Many will doubtless see this as surrender to Muslim pressure, but Bishoi clearly said things that Christians have learned not to say in a Muslim country, and has been taken to the woodshed for it. But it's also rather humiliating for Shenouda himself, that the Pope, the heir of Saint Mark, is forced to apologize on television to Muslims for remarks by the head of the Holy Synod, the man who is sometimes described as the number two in the Church.

The interview itself is an unusual public apology for the Pope; his age and frailty come through,a and if I were Bishoi, I'd be rethinking my plans for being the next Pope. For those with Arabic, here is at least part of the interview on YouTube: