The `Religion of Peace' reacts violently to Pope Benedict's speech

The big story, today is the demonization of Pope Benedict by the Muslim world for his remarks on religious justification of violence, in which he Pope Benedict spoke out against jihad and `fanaticism in religion'.

Needless to say, the effigy burnings, violent protests and threats were not long in coming:

• The leading Moroccan daily newspaper, Attajdid, accused the pope of joining "the Zionist-American alliance against Islam." (always the Joooos with these people!)
  

• Salih Kapusuz, deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet or, worse, a deliberate distortion. "He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world...It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."
  

"Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words.He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini."

And the head of Turkey's state-run religious affairs directorate, Ali Bardakoglu, described the remarks as "full of enmity and grudge" and said the Pontiff should not come to Turkey.

• Pakistan's parliament unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the pope for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam. and of course, there's this gem: "Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence." -Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.
  

• "This is another Crusader war against the Arab and Muslim world," said Hamas official Ismail Radwan as he addressed some 5,000 chanting demonstrators.
  

Meanwhile, in Gaza City, four small home-made bombs exploded near the oldest Christian church and Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya slammed the pope's comments saying: "These remarks go against the truth and touch the heart of our faith."

"The pope should revise his comments and stop attacking Islam, which is the religion of more than 1.5 billion people in the world," he said after the main weekly Muslim prayers in a Gaza mosque.

• "If we want to sit down and compare the history of violence committed in the name of the Catholic Church and violence committed in the name of Islam, that would take a long time...We have 500 years of inquisition, the counter-reformation, the crusades... All religions have been used for violence. None has been excluded, including Judaism." - Ingrid Mattson,head of the Islamic Society of North America (again, the Joos!!)
  

• The 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim body, said quotations used by the Pope represented a "character assassination of the Prophet Mohammad" and a "smear campaign."
  

"The OIC hopes that this campaign is not the prelude of a new
Vatican policy toward Islam ... The OIC also hopes that the Vatican will issue statements that reflect its true position and views on Islam and Islamic teachings," it said.

There's more, but here's the bottom line; Pope Benedict was speaking about using religion to justify violence, terrorism and Holy war...something that is endemic to Islam in our modern day...we're not talking about the 14th Century anymore, much as people like Ms. Mattson would like to.

This was merely an attempt by Pope Benedict to have an honest, open dialog with Muslims on some real, contemporary problems between them and the non-Muslim world. As usual, by reacting in this typical fashion, the Muslim world gives ammunition to those that say that such a dialog is impossible.