Criticism of the Pope is overreaction

Once again, Muslims worldwide are doing their usual bit, namely seething and expressing rage over something somebody said that offended their oh-so-delicate sensibilities.

This time the troublemaker was that rascal Pope Benedict XVI, who had the absolute gall to quote a 14th-century Byzantine emperor in a conversation with a "learned Persian" about Christianity and Islam -- "and the truth of both."

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said, quoting Manuel II Paleologus. "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread the sword by the faith he preached."

The Pope went on to say that violent conversion to Islam was contrary to reason and thus "contrary to God's nature."

"Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats. To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death ..."

The speech, made to 1,500 students and faculty at the University of Regensburg in Germany, was actually more about how Western science and philosophy had separated themselves from the faith -- which the Pope worries is leading to the secularization of European society.

Only three paragraphs of the Pope's lengthy speech was about Islam, but many papers took the 700-year-old quote and put it in the lead of their stories, with predictable results. Friday morning, the photo wires were full of images of enraged Muslims screaming, threatening and burning the Pope in effigy.

In other words, it was business as usual. Muslim governments demanded apologies, and tossed in some insults about Christianity while they were at it. One Turkish lawmaker compared the Pope to Hitler.

Yep, the Pope says that jihad violence is against God's nature and now the usual suspects fear that in response, Muslims enraged by this insult will commit ... jihad violence. As this column is being written, a report has just come in that Muslims have blown up a youth center run by an Orthodox church in Gaza, possibly in retaliation for the Pope's remarks.

Well, if Islam is such a "peace loving" religion, why do its followers react with such outrage to any perceived criticism -- real of otherwise? Scarcely a day goes by without some Muslim cleric or politician calling for the killing of unbelievers in the name of Jihad.

But we are expected to take it all lying down for the sake of promoting tolerance and cultural harmony. Freedom of speech is rapidly becoming a one-way street when it comes to Islam. It's fine and dandy for the president of Iran to constantly spout anti-Semitic and anti-Christian rhetoric while working on atomic weapons, but as soon as the Pope quotes a historical figure on Islam, Muslims of the world are outraged.

It seems to this writer that nothing has changed much in the 700 years since the Emperor made his statement, given the hysterical and violent reaction from people trying to convince us that they are not violent and hysterical.

Perhaps we'd all be a lot better off if we start noting what doesn't offend Muslims these days. It would be a much shorter and easier list to maintain.

I feel like ending this piece with another historical quote, made in 1899 by Sir Winston Churchill in his book, "The River War." If old historic quotes are ticking off the violent nutjobs, I suppose we might as well make our own contribution:

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Brian Mosely is a Times-Gazette staff writer.