Many Muslims recognize in JPII a true man of God and of peace. Paradoxically, this is why the fundamentalists hate him and want to kill him. They fear him and see him as an obstacle to their violent plans.
JPII is the only voice of sanity at the moment. If we had listened to him, we wouldn't be blundering around in Iraq, trying to bring "democracy" to a people that doesn't want it and helping to turn a country that was at least secular in its outlook into a new Islamic Republic, all the while the country's Christian minority gets persecuted, murdered and exiled.
>> I guess he's in a no-win situation, then <<
Well, no, not really. As a Sovereign Head of State he can simply accept such congratulations as a part of the hypocrisy of diplomatic protocol. He just doesn't need to pass it on to the faithful. Secondly, please point out, precisely, where I "dump" on His Holiness.
>>Many Muslims recognize in JPII a true man of God and of peace <<
Many, a great many, don't. You are also on shaky ground in assuming that they recognise the One, True, God. If you feel like running with that one, I'm in the mood for a good long argument on the topic.
>> JPII is the only voice of sanity at the moment <<
No he isn't. And, on Iraq, he was flat-out wrong.
The remainder of your argument simply doesn't hold up. It runs parallel to the specious Liberal notion of.... "If only the nasty West would refrain from resisting Islamic tyranny, they'd really get to like us and stop trying to kill us"
BRAVO! Your statement was very balanced, rational, and clearly showed the reality of things. Thank you!