You are totally right—why even mention them.
The Pope being a civilized person does not understand the unreasoning hatred in the minds of the true Muslim believer. He is trusting that there will be some bit of humanity that he can appeal to but for the real hardcore Islamists this will appear to be weakness. They will despise the Pope and will be encouraged to provoke him just for spite. When Pope Benedict asked the Muslims to not kill and abuse Christians the top clerics told him to mind his own business. These people are animals, they had every shred of decency drained out of them in their childhood.
Pray for the conversion of ALL, including the Muslims, to Christ.