Any Excuse for Violence: Choosing to Misunderstand the Pope

It is crystal clear that many Muslims around the world are choosing to overreact in wild, violent disproportion to the mild, scholarly comments made by Pope Benedict XVI this week.  Everyone who has more than an ounce of common sense and fairness recognizes that the Pope has has said nothing that requires an apology.  And yet we see scenes like this:

Here's an idea for angry Muslims: 

Respond to quiet words you perceive as insulting with quiet words, not shrieks and acts of violence.

Better yet, respond to words you perceive as insulting with love.  If you believe that Jesus was a prophet, why not actually listen to what he had to say once in a while and respond to insults with kindness?

If every insult requires an apology (and the Pope has already apologized, for all the good it will do), who in the Muslim world is going to be apologizing for this insult pointed out by Michelle Malkin?

From Al-Qaeda friendly chat rooms(Angry Muslims show how they refrain from outrageous insults against other religions)According to Malkin's source, the script in red calls for the Pope's beheading. The rest of the translation:  "Swine and servant of the cross, worships a monkey on a cross, hateful evil man, stoned Satan, may Allah curse him, blood-sucking vampire."

Don't hold your breath awaiting apologies for this insult -- which is far more vicious, crude, and outrageous than anything the Pope has ever said.

Tigerhawk has done an excellent job of analyzing the Muslim response to the Pope's remarks.  Take time to read Infantializing Muslim 'Rage'

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Update 9/16/06:  Rick Moran also points out the intellectual laziness in the mainstream media coverage of the Pope's remarks.  This is especially true of the New York Times, which ignored the Pope's detailed remarks and tossed off a superficial editorial siding with the unreasonably-enraged Muslim street over the thoughtful, mild-spoken Pope.  Mary Katharine Ham has a nice discussion at Townhall.com:  Benedict is Not a Blunderer. He Just Won't Let Unreasonable People Keep Him From Reasoning.