Interfaith Intervention Gone Awry

Good follow-up to the Pope's comments on Islam a few weeks back. The following Economist article presents the thesis of my original post, says it much better, and sums up the true shame in the Pope's comments in its conclusion:

"There are two points he is especially keen to make. One is that
Christians in many Muslim countries do not have the same religious
freedom that is enjoyed by most Muslims in the West. The other is that
too many Islamic clerics seem to sanction or at least tolerate violence
in the name of religion. This was central to his Regensburg lecture in
which, as he later said, "I wished to explain that not religion and
violence, but religion and reason go together."

The value of that point in the present state of the world can hardly
be overstated. It is sad that it should have been put in such an inept
way that the only answers came in the form of burnt effigies, grisly
threats--and a great deal of sincerely outraged protest."

I hope the Pope hasn't done irreparable damage, though the entire
situation may have been far beyond his influence from the outset.

Time will tell--and hopefully correct.