[NYer]

Supporters of Pakistani opposition chant slogans holding their party flag which reads 'God is great,' to condemn Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam which hurt the sentiments of Muslims, Friday, Sept. 22, 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan. Protests continued to demand that Pope apologize fully for his remarks on Islam and violence. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Pakistani opposition leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed addresses his supporters gathered to condemn Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam which hurt the sentiments of Muslims, Friday, Sept. 22, 2006 in Islamabad, Pakistan. Protests continued to demand that Pope apologize fully for his remarks on Islam and violence. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

[NYer]

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[areafiftyone]

God I hate these people!

[mainepatsfan]

ROP alert.

[NYer]

Supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League party burn an effigy of Pope Benedict to protest against his remarks about Islam, during a demonstration in Multan September 21, 2006. European Union countries should take 'very seriously' the threat to Pope Benedict after his comments on Islam sparked outrage in the Muslim world, the EU's top security official said on Thursday. REUTERS/Asim Tanveer (PAKISTAN)

[wideawake]

Do your worst, sons of Belial.

You did the same to the first Pope.

And we're still here.

[metmom]

Hundreds of Pakistani Islamists held street protests to condemn Pope Benedict XVI for remarks they regard as anti-Islamic, with one leader saying the pontiff should be crucified.

And they're doing this in objection to his comments that their religion is violent. Riiight.

They're just proving his point. Idiots.

[wvobiwan]

Ignorant savages. Good thing Islam is the Religion of Peace or I'd think they really mean it. /sarcasm

It's so pathetic to see folks who can barely read and write complaining about theological and historical truths.

Islam seems to be the Religion of the Permanently Brain Damaged. So if the Pope doesn't apologize for implying that Islam was historically violent, Islamists will be presently violent.

[BelegStrongbow]

I should get upset over this, but it's simply too self-parodying to be worth the emotional effort.

Just keep our powder dry, that's all this is about. If they want a war, they're going to actually have to kill one of us to start it. I'm sure they'd love to do that, but if ranting in their own streets is all they can come up with then I'd say that Pres Bush's responses have been more effective than most think.

I personally think these people are gone crazy and don't even remember what sanity once was. That's dangerous, to be sure, but they're also so out of touch they keep reminding us they are after our hides. Nothing like a good warning to put your back up and keep your weapon in your hand, so the only thing this all accomplishes is to make them feel like big men.

[conservativecorner]

Religion of peace my arse BUMP!

[Mercat]

I'm disappointed. Sounds like B16 is apologizing even though it's couched in "sorry you're upset" type of language. He should instead point out the irony of rioting to object to saying that they riot. grrrr....

[Steel Wolf]

The only thing between these people, nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles is Pervez Musharraf.

That's my 'happy thought' for today.

[freeperfromnj]

I say we go back to Plan A and bomb them back to the stone age.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Anger has gripped the Muslim world since the pope quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said innovations introduced by the Prophet Mohammed were "evil and inhuman."

The pope didn't go far enough.

From the beginning of the Muslim conquests, the Christians had ceded to the Muslims half of their churches, which were turned into mosques. One of the earliest examples of this kind was in Damascus, where in 705 Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik took the church of St. John from the Christians and had it rebuilt as a mosque, which is now known as Umayyad Mosque; overall, Abd al-Malik is said to have transformed ten churches in Damascus into mosques.

"Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, one of the first churches converted into mosques"

The process of turning churches into mosques was especially intensive in the villages, with the gradual conversion of the people to Islam. During his persecution of the Copts, Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun turned many churches into mosques, both in Cairo and in Egyptian villages, which had no mosques in the earlier generations of Islam. Fatimid caliph al-Hakim converted numerous churches and synagogues into mosques. The chief mosque in Palermo was previously a church. After the Crusades, several churches were turned into mosques in Palestine. Ottoman Turks converted into mosques nearly all churches, monasteries, and chapels in Constantinople, including the famous St. Sophia cathedral, immediately after capturing the city in 1453. To make the buildings fit for the mosques, the Turks destroyed the icons, plundering their precious plating in the process, and defaced the frescoes. The Ottoman sultan Mehmet II was the first to perform a Muslim prayer in what had previously been the St. Sophia cathedral. "Hagia Sophia, an Eastern Orthodox church converted into a mosque on the day of the Fall of Constantinople."

In many instances mosques were established on the places of Jewish or Christian sanctuaries associated with Biblical personalities who were also recognized by Islam; the practice was particularly common in Palestine. Caliph Umar laid the foundation of Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, the most sacred site in Judaism; Dome of the Rock, another Muslim shrine, was also built on the Temple Mount. The mosque of Job in Ash Shaykh Sa'd, Syria, which previously was a church of Job. Cave of the Patriarchs, the second most holy site in Judaism, was converted into a church during the Crusades before being turned into a mosque in 1266 and henceforth banned to Jews and Christians. In October 2005, during the Al-Aqsa intifada, the tomb of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph, and the yeshiva inside Od Yosef Chai, located in Nablus, was destroyed by a Palestinian mob and immediately rebuilt as a mosque with a dome painted green. "Al-Aqsa Mosque (pictured) was built on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism"

[murphE]

"If the pope comes here we will hang him on the Cross," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of Pakistan's main alliance of radical parties, told around 200 noisy demonstrators in Islamabad.

So they wish martyrdom and sainthood for the pope? Maybe they are not so bad./sarcasm

[Jaded]

1. These people are freaks!

2. Cair's silence is deafening.

3. Where's the commentary from other Christian leaders?

4. Islam is a tool of Satan.

[FastCoyote]

"If the pope comes here we will hang him on the Cross,"
Ahmed also said the pope had joined US President George W. Bush's "crusade" against Muslims, referring to Christians who fought against Muslims from the 11th through the 13th centuries.


You know, you just can't make this stuff up. Call Islam a murderous cult, and they want you crucified. I'd think I was watching Monte Python if it wasn't so deadly serious.

[Aquinasfan]

They're sure proving the pope wrong. They seem very open to reasonable discussion regarding violence in the cause of religion.

[headstamp]

"Demonstrators Friday poured out of mosques after the main weekly Muslim prayers in Pakistan's largest city Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore, the capital Islamabad and other urban centres."


I see they got their weekly "Religion of Peace" death and destruction orders. Animals, every one of them.

[oldbrowser]

Religion of Rabble.

[Grampa Dave]