The Pope has a point in that Religion should exclude violence. Where he went wrong was in offending Muslims is by invoking Muhammad as the bad guy. He could have just stuck with the facts of Islamic violent history.

Also, isn’t this message that violence is wrong in religion just as appropiatly aimed at BUSH? Bush plays his christian cards a lot, he says god told him to go into Iraq [via 9-11?] , and yet he perpetrates the most violence of any leader.

i think the pope was out of his mind when he said wat he did

“i see nothing in his statement that is contrary to history, and if a muslim is not comfortable with the bloody violence that his religious history and book are based on, then maybe they should re-evaluate their stance and beliefs.” - shawn kilmer

BINGO!!! No other leaders have the guts to call the Muslims out.
This one does it and then back tracks! What is the Pope afraid of?
Dying and going to heaven by the “Sword of Islam”?
What’s he protecting? The Vatican’s treasures?

The Pope’s statements and retraction do nothing but bring into
question his own belief in God.

Guess what folks? They all know. The Pope, Bush,
Blair, Clinton, you know, the “Illuminati”. There is no God.
The concept of God serves the purposes of evil people.
These people don’t consider their motives and actions evil,
just further evolved than those of the rest of mankind.
They operate under the belief that
“the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”.
(A Star Trek quote that fits the purpose.)
A few thousand lives lost to make the rich richer,
keep the oil flowing and shove the world closer
to a “New World Order” is little cost indeed.

Without God, what is evil? Nothing in their eyes.
Religion gave the world basic tenets that outlined
and enforced (not always without error) what was
good and what was evil for civilized life.
Religion was a step in our evolution, how ironic?
Religions generated around the world with similar tenets.
These were “self evident” truths for living amicably.
So, we no longer need the concept of an invisible judge
of right and wrong. We can generally agree, with a
few exceptions, on what is good and evil.

These “select” or “Illuminati” believe that their
designs for the world outweigh the needs of the
uneducated masses.

Re: comment 23487 by shawn

Yes, and take a look at Christianity
*Spanish inquisition
*Salem Witch trials
*The Crusades

No religion especially the dominate ones in mondern history can escape the truth.  Religion is a political and often times bloody movement, a club or group of people who have similar beliefs who need to increase their numbers to keep money flowing and foster strenth in numbers, nothing more.

It is still baffeling to me how religions can break their own religious laws in the name of religion?? and say that god is blessing them for their effort. 

God, regardless of what you call him/her does not bless anyone in war or killing. 

Anyone who thinks that Islam is a violent religion and Christianity is not is fooling themselves.

as retarded as the pope is, with his harsh opposition to gay rights and opposition to abortion, im glad that big figures are speaking publicly in a blunt and honest way about islam. i see nothing in his statement that is contrary to history, and if a muslim is not comfortable with the bloody violence that his religious history and book are based on, then maybe they should re-evaluate their stance and beliefs.
muhammed gained power with his small group of followers by simply raiding and sacking incoming caravans into Mecca, killing them and stealing their stuff. some prophet. open any page in the koran and see how long you have to read before some directive to kill nonbelievers, ‘sinners’, or to oppress women. usually less than a page.
we need this realistic and honest outspoken critiques of all religions. you are damn right islam is violent. pick any section of the koran.

By attributing his remarks to a 14 century emperor, who probably didn’t even recognize the pope as any more than the mere “bishop of Rome,” Benedict protect himself from defending the controversial the remark, even if he privately disagrees.  However, the emperor’s words or beliefs did not protect Byzantium from eventual conquest by Islam.  Taunting Muslims today might not do Rome any better.  Maybe Benedict ought to devise somewhat to reduce, rather than increase tensions. Irate Muslims should also review the comparative liberty of relgious minorities in the West and in Muslim lands before they issue fatwas against the offending Benedict or his followers.  In this respect, the West has made at least some progress since the 14th century.

When jews were weak prior to ww2, vatican went after jews. Now muslims are weak, vatican again goes after them.

Vatican gotta stop this aggression in the name of mary. Who knows, perhaps there are nazism in the blood of this german pope.

Religions are the source of human miseries, not the salvation of mankind. Readers knew about the practice of religions in genocide, gender and racial intolerace, bloodshed, hatred, outright discrimination, aggression.........

Here’s a case of the Pope (pot) calling the
kettle black. If only he had the courage to
stick with the concept but then the Catholic
atrocities of the past would be dragged out
for the umteenth time. It’s hard to shoot holes
in the other guys’ rowboat when your busy
bailing to keep yours afloat. It was a nice try!

The Muslims are always outraged at these statements.
They do nothing to divest themselves of the
terrorist factions that incite these statements.
The reason? “Moderate” Muslims are being held
captive by their holy book (which does promote
their faith at the point of a sword) and the fundamentalists.
If you disagree with the fundamentalists you are as
“persona non grata” as the infidels. “Mohammed’s way or the highway!”

By “Moderate” Muslim I would define my use as one that
has used some modern “reason” and discretion in choosing
which scriptures to accept and follow verbatim. This of
course would make such a person blasphemous in the eyes
of the hard liners. There are likely millions of Muslims with
“moderate” beliefs and they are as terrorized by the fundamentalists
as anyone. This is not unique, in the US we are terrorized by
fundamentalists of various faiths.

All the religionistas conveniently ignore what does not suit their momentary agenda.  Certain Islamists emphasize the “sword” passages of the Koran as their call to arms and justification for murder; the Christians de-emphasize the horrors perpetrated under the banner of Jesus, the “Prince of Peace”.  When the “revealed truth” from both sides is such oatmeal, only screeching insanity results, and that is precisely what we have.

it’s hilarious when a leading freak of religiosity criticizes the freaks of a different cult

religion is the handmaiden to power—it’s all about controlling the crowd

the pope’s historians are too busy chasing altar boys round the sacristy to bother getting their facts right, but they don’t care because one cult’s no better than another & all cults stem from the same sources just as all human beings & all languages do

POPE WANT HARMONY BETWEEN RELIGIONS OF CLASH?

Pope gave these remarks at an INTER RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE lecture. This lecture is the aimed for creating harmony between religions.
Being the student of polictical science, I am ashamed to guess the intellectual level of such a BIG religious leader. Even a child know as how to speak at different situations but the Pope showed the flame to the hunderds’years old Muslim-Christian tension by his remarks.
His remarks can not and will not bring Christianity and Islam closer. POPE hurted the Muslims. In 2006 world he quoted 14th century “EMPEROR”.
Sorry to all Muslims.