A dialogue of religions..

Kudos to the Pope Benedict XVI, for taking the time to analyse Christianity as thoroughly as he did. I wonder if some other Islamic scholars would also take the time out to analyse Islam to come up with their own views in a similar format. His speech as transcribed by the BBC is here.. Do read it before making your own judgement. My own view is this: The Pope in his speech is trying to get people to "reason about religion" and not just "have blind faith", and wants to strongly anchor theology as a living subject constantly questioning religion, allowing fresh insights and allowing the religion itself to evolve and incorporate modern elements into it. The speech is almost entirely about Christianity, and at no point in time belittles Islam, in fact the Pope actually praises Islam in this sentence (which is him actually giving his meaning about Islamic thought)

But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent.

His Big Mistake was in the choice of an example to illustrate his point that violence is bad. He could have chosen from a multitude of examples even on how spreading Christianity through violence was wrong (as was the norm in the 13th - 15th centuries) or even refrained from using any example at all. I guess he's learning to be the Pope. But He has guts, he should be prove to be a great Pope. Give him some time!