Pope Flap edging toward violence. From The Australian, with thanks to JE:
CAIRO: Muslim leaders yesterday condemned Pope Benedict XVI over comments he made about Islam on a visit to Germany and demanded he apologise.
A grenade exploded near the oldest church in Gaza City, injuring no one, and hundreds of Muslims in Indian Kashmir held a day-long strike with protests in the capital, Srinagar, as a statement from the Vatican failed to quell the anger in the Muslim world.
The Vatican’s statement said the Pope had never meant to offend Islam when he quoted a Byzantine emperor on the prophet Mohammed’s “evil”.
It said a careful reading of Benedict’s lecture at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday would show that “what really matters to the Holy Father is a clear and radical rejection of religious motives for violence”.
And many in the Islamic world respond with outrage and violence. Bravo.