Actually, he was giving a lecture at a university where he made the quote, which was in context of his lecture. It was not his personal views, but a historical quote which went on to say that violence is antithetical to God (not just that Islam was spread by violence). As is usual for these things, it had little effect on the Muslim world until Friday when Imams in Masques pushed the issue and fanned the flames. I think we now have a strong clue as to who is a problem in the Muslim world. It's not the people, it's the leaders. If the leaders tell the people to riot and kill, the people seem more than happy to follow the words of their leaders. If the leaders called for peace instead then we'd have peace. I wonder why they haven't.
Oh, and the media has not helped much, especially with CNN rewriting history to say that the fact of Islam using violence to spread their religion in the early years is only a Christian 'opinion'. >The pope, in a wondrously unpolitical move, read the words of a >long-dead emperor, who claimed that Mohammad brought nothing new to >the table that was good, and anything that was uniquely Islamic was >evil, and that Islam was spread by the sword. > >In response, Al Qaeda and many Muslim leaders and people have >threatened the pope, and have attacked churches and in one case killed >a nun. > >One great quote from Al Qaeda (trying to refute the charges?) >"... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, >then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed >by) the sword." > >Boy, did they prove him wrong. > >God, the irony is killing me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:215588 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
