The Pope represents 1 billion people. Although the total number of all Christians is about 1.5 billion souls, there are about 1.5 billion Muslims. Do you really want Half of the earth’s population to be at each other’s throats?

The Pope’s speech had only a brief reference to Islam and was not the central aspect of his talk. The fact that Muslims came unglued is their problem. Nevertheless, it is not the mission of the Pope to incite violence; hence his sorrow over the results of his speach.

I haven’t checked the Wikipedia item yet (you have to be careful because of the open-edit feature, and double-check entries’ sourcing), but Amin Al-Husseini was known as “Hitler’s Mufti” and was the inspiration for (and central figure of) al-Banna’s 1928 creation of the Muslim Brotherhood – parent group to both Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Al-Husseini, an Ottoman Empire officer who participated in the Armenien slaughter (the fall of the Ottoman Empire was alluded to in Osama bin Ladin’s 10/7/2001 video reference to “Islam’s 80 years of humiliation and disgrace”), was funded by Germany following a 1937 meeting in Jerusalem with Adolph Eichman. Al-Husseini was also behind the failed 1941 attempted coup in Baghdad, and his henchman and close colleague leading that, was Saddam Hussein’s mentor and father-in-law.

Al-Husseini was also funded and backed, 1943-1944, in the Islamic Institute in Dresden, by Heinrich Himmler, with the purpose and plan “to create a generation of Islamic leaders to continue to use Islam as a carrier for Nazi ideology into the 21st Century.”

Arafat reportedly changed his name — his birth name was “Husseini” — to conceal the relationship.

There’s a pretty good time line and documentation-sourcing at:
http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com

President Bush used the term “Islamo-fascists” the other week, and it so upset the Muslims, it even came out when the Palestinian Group kidnapped Centani and Wiig of FoxNews!

Everyone should take a gander at this Article, to show EXACTLY how tied in, the Muslims were, and have been tied DIRECTLY in with the Fascists, since the 1930′s!

By the way, this guy, the Grand Mufti of Jeruselum, was Yasser Arafat’s distant cousin!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husayni

Not that “the Church regards…” their religion with or without esteem, or their behavior, or their anything else. He was also apologetic to “any Muslims who were offended,” but no where in there did he apologize for what it was he said (which was, of course, a quote from something said in the 15th Century).

This “diplo-speak” is comparable to the making of distinctions between “the deed and the doer,” such as regarding homosexuals with “esteem,” while denouncing in no uncertain terms homosexual activity, and loving thieves while denouncing theft, etc.

Pope Benedict, let’s not forget, was tagged (John Paul II) “the Pontiff’s rottweiler.” I don’t think he’ll backtrack. But Vatican “assistants” are similar to politicians, so that’s another story.

You’re right, of course, that the Bible clearly designates Abraham patriarch of God’s mortals. But the Sarah-Haggar episode seems to still be throwing a monkey wrench into the works (and I thought my sibling fights were extreme).

Calls for apologies are quickly superseded by scenes of demonstrations wherein banners call for Benedict’s head. I’d say that Benedict touched a raw nerve in his speech alright….

To back down, only enforces the thugs claim to special treatment and will make them more certain of their power.

I don’t blame the Pope. I blame the secular institutions for failing to stand up against this thuggery.