"The Pope Must Die!"

And so it continues.

The Muslim world continues its whining over the "insult" to its precious religion by the Pope.

The Pope, while giving a lecture in Germany, quoted the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II as he spoke to a Persian scholar:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The exhange between the Emperor and the scholar, of which this quote is but a part, was used by the Pope to introduce his larger examination of faith and reason. A provisional text of the speech can be found here. It's worthwhile to read the entire speech; only then would someone see how absurd the Muslims' "offense" really is. Honestly, it's not even a question of context. When seen as part of the larger speech, any objective reader would have to conclude that Pope Benedict was not insulting anyone's religion. However, within the context of a speech on faith and reason, surely it's appropriate to question whether certain actions carried out in the name of faith are...well, reasonable. Pope Benedict's ultimate point was that radicalism, in any religion, would be against the will of God.

Why would the Religion of Peace be against that?