Pope seeks accord with Muslims

Pope Benedict would do well to remember that the Muslims attempted to conquer the known world in the 7th and 8th centuries. They were only stopped at the Battle of Tours in, I think, 732AD by Charles Martel known affectionately as "Chuck the Hammer". Left to their own devices they are single-minded, vicious zealots who can rationalize the most heinous behavior as "God's will".

This Muslim Georgetown professor aims to throw off the spotlight on horrid Muslim human rights abuses by any means possible. i.e. Blame everyone but us: "Mr. Kalin said Iraqi Christians were the victims of "American and Israeli pressure" and the invasion of Iraq." So what does this mean? Christians and Jews (huh?) are pressuring Christians to leave Iraq to make Muslims look bad? What a shameful twist of rationality, especially for such an educated person. Divert attention by bringing up other tragedies: "...the plight of Christians in the Middle East was "a very small genocide" compared with the killings of Muslims in the Bosnian war in the early 1990s." Yes that was terrible but it was an ethnic war much less than a religious one, although the Muslim world wanted to turn it into a religious war to use it as more fodder for extremism. The complete failure of the UN to protect Muslims in Srebrenica should be viewed in the context of the Christian world generally trying to stop the conflict, and don't forget that the Christian world was effective in stopping the war against Muslims in Kosovo. Since that war many major Christian countries have protected and sided with the Muslim Kosovars against Christian Serbia. --- It's time for Muslims to own up to the serious persecutions and human rights abuses in their countries. There needs to be a serious effort made, unless there's really no desire to help alleviate suffering within their own lands. Saying that "many Muslim jurists are trying to re-interpret [Muslim teaching on] apostasy" is woefully weak. Statements such as that and the continued persecution of non-Muslims leads me to believe that there is, in fact, only a desire to force Islam on others by many Muslims. In the vast majority of Christian countries a Muslim can say whatever he/she wants, the same isn't true in far too many Muslim countries. Own up to your problems, show a serious resolve to combat persecution, create high profile organizations and pressure Muslim religious leaders and governments to respect all people's rights - only then will your religion gain the respect of the world.