You’d almost have to think the neo-cons made him do it, the way Pope Benedict’s citation of a 14th century Byzantine Emperor’s unfavorable view of Islam has got Muslims riled up. Proof of the pudding, as they say. Violent jihadis are gonna get your momma.
CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran’s supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff’s remarks on Islam.
Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict’s statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, utopianists to the core,
…said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as “the worshipper of the cross,” saying “you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. … We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the ‘jizya’ tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (being killed by) the sword.”
In language guaranteed to bring the joy of certainty to anti Muslimists in the West it goes on:
“You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God’s rule is established governing all people and nations,” said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.
Oh, religious fervor is such a satisfying thing! All forms of abuse are permitted, and even rewarded by one of the faces of god. Uf! I wonder if we non believers could just have one big island where we could go and be left alone….
It’s not all bad, though. At least we might get the Quixote re-written, as Jorge Luis Borges’ imagination had it, it was difficult, but not impossible. All Pierre Menard had to do was,
Know Spanish well, recover the Catholic faith, fight against the Moor or the Turk, forget the history of Europe between 1602 and 1918, be Miguel de Cervantes.