Pope Benedict Slams Islam

**Update (9/15 11 pm MDT): Pope Benedict On Islam: A Roundup

Via Hot Air:

POPE Benedict has hit out at Islam and its concept of holy war during a visit to his Bavarian homeland.

The thinly veiled attack on extremist Islam's justification for terrorism came during a theological lecture to staff and students at the University of Regensburg, where the former Joseph Ratzinger taught theology in the 1970s.

Using the words, "jihad" and "holy war", the Pope quoted criticisms of the prophet Mohammed by a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II, during a debate with a learned Persian.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached," Benedict quoted the emperor as saying.

"The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable," the Pope said.

"Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul," he added.

More world leaders would do well to point out that embedded next to every "peaceful" passage in the Koran is an exhultation to kill and spread Islam, peacefully if possible, and through violence if necessary. There is no command to coexist, for the penalties incurred by the jizya can not be taken as symbolic of a "peaceful coexistence". Conversion, slavery, or death are the only choices with Islam, and the Pope correctly reaffirmed Islam's predatory past, one that threatens non-Muslims to this day.