The Pope, Muslims And Reciprocity

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Christianity Today has gathered together a number of interesting articles related to the Pope's speech in which he quoted from some medieval ruler about Muslim which has incited so much ironic hate from the Muslim community. The individual articles collected are excellent and cover a wide-range of opinions as to what the Pope said, its meaning, the world's (over)reaction, and other opinions of interest. The Christianity Today page can be found here, or the individual subtopics related to this matter can be accessed through the following links:

All apologies
Mideast Christians worry
Muslims attack
Other Muslim reactions
Defending the Pope's comments
Jewish reaction
Other papal critics
Pope's upcoming Turkey visit
Did he know what he was doing?
Earlier Benedict XVI comments on Islam
Explaining papal infallibility
Other pope comments news
Editorials
Blame the Pope
Blame the Muslims
Blame religion in general
Blame the media
Other op-eds

Interestingly, the Pope met yesterday with a number of Muslim leaders to discuss, once again, his comments. I thought the Pope was genius in the fact that he took the opportunity to press our Islamic friends for more freedom for Christians living in predominantly Islamic countries. According to "Pope Says 2 Faiths Must Overcome Enmity"

Seeking to end anger in the Islamic world over his remarks on holy war, Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim envoys Monday their two faiths must overcome historic enmities and together reject violence, saying the future of humanity is at stake.

The pope also urged "reciprocity" in religious freedom, calling for preserving the rights of Christians throughout the Islamic world.

Since the Muslim countries remain among the places in the world where Christian missionaries are least free to speak openly to the people about their faith without fear of state sponsored harm, it is appropriate to urge Muslim leaders to work to allow more freedom of religion to Christianity and other faiths in their countries if Islam really isn't a religion which has been spread by the sword.

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