Madeline Bunting's diatribe against Pope Benedict is just one more instance of anti-Catholic prejudice. First, the use of the term "Dark Ages" as a perjorative is entirely inappropriate. The only parts of Western civilization which survived the fall of the Roman Empire did so because the Church preserved them. What the ignorant, like Ms. Bunting, call the "Dark Ages" are too often the period from the 12th to the 15th centuries, which was a period which saw magnificent achievements in art, architecture, philosophy, theology, the development of the first modern universities and the beginnings of modern European nation-states. For all its flaws, it was no dark age.

The true dark ages encompassed the time from the fall of Rome to the 10th or 11th centuries, and one of the things that made them so bad was--militant Islam. When the Pope talked about spreading Islam with the sword, he spoke nothing but historical fact. Starting in the mid 600's, Islam conquered much of the middle east and all of northern Africa, destroying Christianity and an ancient and thriving Christian civilization there. Even now, prominent churchmen are given the honorary titles to bishoprics long ago annihilated by militant Islam. Only force of arms in front of Constantinople and in France stopped the armies of Islam from converting the rest of Europe at the point of the sword.

The Pope may not have been politic in his comments, but what he said was the unvarished historical truth.

Golden Boy spend a few days living in a suburb of Dearborn, Michigan. Or visit a mosque. If he met one Muslim he actually liked -- and I know many, who make great jokes! Who ride carousels! -- maybe he'd be less inclined to spew virulent, pseudo-academic propaganda on every thread he goes on.

It's possible to be a Catholic and be pro-choice. It's possible to be Muslim and not want to kill and bomb everything. The world is full of possibilities. I don't think the Pope's offense was small, or the reaction to it justified. I think the one thing we should take away from this furor is to not become inflamed by your emotions and turn a whole group of people into sword-wielding, blood-dripping cartoons, whether they're Catholic crusaders or Muslim jihadists. Although I guess if you read Salon, you're pretty prone to becoming inflamed, anyway.

I see you've dropped your original argument about Ms Bunting (that she wasn't excusing Muslim violence in response to the Pope's comment.) That's good, because it is indefensible - she clearly was.

Yes, I know some Muslims. And once they started to open up to me, I was *shocked* by what I heard. I listened politely because I didn't want to argue with them - no point in that - but I did want to hear what they had to say. Emboldened by that, they espoused the same theory of Islam that their more violent co-religionists exhibit on television. While there certainly are moderate Muslims - not all of them are terrorists, even though that's the straw man your post attacks - there is no such thing as moderate Islam. Islam is a sweeping marriage of politics and religion, and that's not a surprise considering its origins.

By the way, did you ever get around to asking your friend the meaning of those words?

How does it feel, Christians? Oh and speaking of Christians, aren't you overdue to start bombing another small middle eastern counrty full of helpless cilivilians who have done absolutely nothing to us?

Face it. Muslims are violent. Jews are violent. Christians are violent. There is no difference between ANY of your groups. You all hate eachother, and you all value yourselves as superior. The ultimate irony, you all believe in the same God as Abraham! (for those of you who don't know who Abraham was, he's the guy who was ready to cut up his own son because this "merciful, loving" God told him too.

You are ALL part of the problem, not the solution.

The person who called this article "anti-Catholic" has a point. I read the letter first and didn't find the article as bad as the letter made it sound, but she is clearly biased against the church.

That said, the author is quite right, the pope knows better. I'm not sure where the "academic" context comes in, but he knows his remarks will be broadcast.

And that said -- "reverence for the Prophet is non-negotiable" -- yeah, I got a problem with that. I'm from the culture where "Jesus Entering from the Rear" can be played on college radio. Sorry, Muslims are going to have to accept criticism. I'm sure most Muslims do accept it, but their fanatics seem to get most of the attention.

At the risk of rambling -- is this a problem with Muslim regimes? Do leaders of Muslim countries have to be, so to speak, more Catholic than the pope?

When Sinead O'Connor tore up the picture of the Pope, she was protesting sexual abuse in the Church.

I remember calls for columnist Father Andrew Greeley to be excommunicated for calling for an end to the hideous practice of shuttling pedophiles from one parish to another. Rome was well aware of that practice.

Perhaps if more people listened to the protestors then, the Church might have damaged fewer children, and less to payout in lawsuits.

"I suggest that Golden Boy spend a few days living in a suburb of Dearborn, Michigan. Or visit a mosque. If he met one Muslim he actually liked -- and I know many, who make great jokes! Who ride carousels! -- maybe he'd be less inclined to spew virulent, pseudo-academic propaganda on every thread he goes on.

Yellow Boy claims that he "has Muslim friends" who have "opened up to him" eventually and told him things that shocked - shocked! - him on other threads, too. When pressed further, these close personal friends turned out to be some people he allegedly worked with and who he was miraculously able to coax into revealing their deepest personal beliefs - supposedly including radicalism - to him in this post 9/11 world, when saying such things can get you "extreme rendered".

He also claimed in this thread he thinks of himself of a liberal. He's at best delusional, at worst a liar, he makes stuff up to back his case as he goes along. I bet he's one of those "yeah, but people support me in email" posters on forums.