Not a Helpful Thing to Say
Pope Benedict has now become part of the Christian-Muslim difficulties. It appears that he quoted from a book a 14th Century conversation Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad 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 did not explicitly agree with the statement nor repudiate it.
--Associated Press

This has raised a storm of protests, especially in Turkey where the Pope is scheduled to visit in November. Even the strongly secular opposition party there has called for a retraction.

Was the Pope trying to emphasize the positive of Islam- the first half of the quote that there was good in Islam that came from elsewhere? Or was the Pope trying to point out what he felt was the weakness of Islam- what the second half of the quote says- nothing but evil was new?

In either case he certainly ignored the thrust of the statement and how truly anti-Islam the line is. How he could think that he could get away with the statement and not cause great protest and upheaval, especially since he is supposedly interested in ecumenical relations and being in dialogue with non-Christian world religions. We'll have to see how he works through this one.