[Mark Felton]

""For Western civilization to develop it needs an enemy and the Pope openly says that this enemy is Islam,"

This is a perfect example of accusing somebody else of the crimes you committed.

So that explains why Mohamad was a murderous warrior commanding troops to slaughter millions, and conquer vast amounts of land and then forcibly convert people to Islam or be slain by the sword.

Jesus Christ was the perfect man of peace with no military power at all. His Sword was His word. His leader was God and His enemy is our enemy, the enemy of every person, the Devil and all the evil fomented by the devil.

No man can convert another man to Christianity. Only God does that. Yet the truly evil Muslims have no concept of what it means to accept Grace from God and be Saved. They are so insecure and wrong they must be comforted by others sharing their misery thus must forcibly convert others to Islam.

Mohamed the Warrior required enemies to slay. Jesus attacked the devil and saved humanity by sacrificing Himself for us.

What a contrast. What clear truth in the difference between these two men. No wonder that Muslims must hurriedly kill Christians before everybody in the world learns about the lies being spread by their evil cult.

N.B. - Muslims claim Jesus as a revered prophet in their religion. Yet, they do not accept Jesus own words when he says "the only way to the Father is through me...". I asked a world famous cleric this question when he was touring to calm down fears of the Christians. I asked how can he accept Jesus as a prophet yet reject jesus own words, he refused to answer but his bodygaurd accused me of being a radical trying to foment hatred and rushed him out of the crowd. (I asked politely).

[Chewie84]

"while another said, "Jesus is not the son of God, he is a prophet of Islam.""
It should be interesting to see that gent standing before Jesus, the true Son of God, on his day of Judgment, wondering where Muhammad is.

[MaestroLC]

It's time to get real:

We are in a religious war with Islam. It's them or us.

I choose us.

[2banana]

Rather ironic coming out of a city that was Christian for 1000 years and conquered by islamic armies that killed every man, took all the women as sex slaves and sold the all the children into slavery (or gave them as gift to other islamic leaders). Every Church was destroyed or converted into a mosque...

[Andrew Byler]

I demand an apology for the conquest of the East Roman Empire and the genocide of its population by the Turks - the direct cause of the Crusades.

[WashingtonSource]

God's protective hand go with the pope. If nothing else, I think his visit will show why Turkey should never be allowed into the European Union.

[marsh_of_mists]

He can apologize to the Crusades for the outcome of the First Crusade by saying "I apologize that some Christians, of their own free will, became overzealous in their pursuit of a good cause, not because it was the fault of the Church, but merely to humor you." That will only occur after their imams, mullahs, and ayatollahs apologize to the Roman Catholic, Coptic, and Eastern Orthodox Chruches for the entire Islamic conquest from the Battle of Yarmouk to the Battle of Tours.

Meanwhile, the pope can also apologize the Greek Christians for the Fourth Crusade by saying "I guess excommunicating them twice just wasn't enough!"

[workerbee]

[MNJohnnie]

Right after they apologize for the original Arab Conquest of the Holy Land and the Byzantine Empire. They are the invaders, the Crusades were a counter attack

[Solamente]

Re: The Crusades

The Pope should say he's sorry the Church waited 300 years to go after the Muslims!

[cicero's_son]

OK.

We'll apologize for the Crusades if you return Constantinople.

Deal?

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

There is no way to talk with these people. There is no reconciliation possible. Living in peace and harmony is not possible. The Pope is very courageous and well-meaning, but there will be no peace with these people.
Theirs is a violent hate-filled ideology.

[pandoraou812]

So that explains why Mohamad was a murderous warrior commanding troops to slaughter millions, and conquer vast amounts of land and then forcibly convert people to Islam or be slain by the sword.


The religion of peace. NOT!!! I wish the Pope had not gone there. It makes no sense to try to be kind to these people. They want to behead us. They want us dead. I would rather get them before they get us. I just can't find it in my heart to forgive them for all the terror they create.

[Gritty]

[taxcontrol]

The Pope should make a deal... he will apologize for the Crusades when the Imans apologize for the invasion and subjugation of Christian Asia Minor.

[bd476]

The protesters are very considerate to be carrying signs written in English for the Pope whose native language is German.

---

Thousands of Turks in Istanbul protest tomorrows arrival of Pope Benedict who is coming to support Turkeys dwindling Christian communities and to try to heal a rift with Orthodox Christians.

[Rurudyne]

N.B. - Muslims claim Jesus as a revered prophet in their religion. Yet, they do not accept Jesus own words when he says "the only way to the Father is through me...". I asked a world famous cleric this question when he was touring to calm down fears of the Christians. I asked how can he accept Jesus as a prophet yet reject Jesus own words, he refused to answer but his bodygaurd accused me of being a radical trying to foment hatred and rushed him out of the crowd. (I asked politely).

Actually, their "acceptance" of Jesus as a prophet amounts to an internal contradiction within its own context, a dilemma that Islam cannot resolve.

Muhammad clearly STATES that Jesus was a true prophet of Allah.

He even clearly STATES that Jesus was born of a virgin and she is named.

But he clearly implies that such a special prophet was somehow unable to select men to be his closest followers who would faithfully communicate his gospel to the world.

It is not the case that that a Muslim can assert – as many modern scholars attempt to do – that the apostles DID NOT write the New Testament but that it was written later by people "inventing" a religion much in the same way they ascribe the post-exile Jews "inventing" their own sacred history....

No, a Muslim cannot assert that the Jews at the time of Jesus were NOT a people with a literary habit with respect to religious things because the Koran prevents that assertion.

So what is left is that the apostles themselves and their immediate successors were the ones who corrupted the true gospel that Jesus had brought from Allah.

This is a classical dilemma.

Either Jesus is this special prophet AND he was unable to select faithful disciples.

... OR ...

Jesus is this special prophet AND he selected precisely the sorts of disciples he wanted KNOWING that they would do as Muslims assert.

Assume the former and Jesus becomes incompetent. Assume the latter and you may as well assert that Allah wants so many people to be apart from the true gospel.

There is a way to resolve this dilemma by taking neither of the invited means of attack ... but I don't think one could do so and remain a Muslim.

Previously, when I've point this out a Muslim wrote back this was nonsense; however, it is only nonsense if one accepts this premise of Islam, that the truth was perverted and lost.

Here's the issue: Jews were a literate people with a habit of writing on such matters as religion. The apostles were no different. Luke even states that numerous early Christians writers had set out to make a faithful recording of what had happened ... further, Luke clearly indicates that he used first person references for his text (even including Mary who is repeatedly described as storing up these things in her heart – or committing them to memory).

The point of writing something down is not to bring it to life but rather to cause it to become FIXED and IMMUTABLE ... to be what it is.

Thus for Islam to be respected one must ignore the dilemma imposed because Muhammad sought to give Jesus His props even as he insisted that His disciples somehow corrupted His teachings.

It is not nonsense to point out that Islam has, at its core, so glaring an inconsistency.

The disciples of the Rabbis don't have this problem because, recognizing Moses, they refuse to recognize Yeshua (His Jewish name tranliterated in Greek as "Jesus").

The disciples of Jesus don't have this problem because, recognizing both Moses and Yeshua, they have the whole ball of wax (especially if they are physically children of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob).

It is the disciples of Muhammad who have this problem. First because it was imposed upon them from the start, also because they are in a poor position to refute the antiquity of either Jewish or Christian text SINCE THEIR'S ARE MORE RECENT, and thirdly because they must allow that God was somehow incapable of preserving His revealed truth from human mendacity not once – but twice – even as they then turn around and claim that they have not lost or perverted the truth.

Neither Christians nor Rabbinical Jews have these problems because they do not claim that those whom they accept have ever had their teachings corrupted as Muhammad did.

This is really the crux of the issue: it is not that Muhammad came later that puts his disciples in this bind ... it is that Muhammad imposed a dilemma on them that they must ignore.

Only by closing their eyes and pretending that the dilemma isn't there does the appearance of the dilemma go away.

And these are the horns of the dilemma:

EITHER Jesus was incompetent and incapable of choosing faithful disciples.

OR Jesus was culpable in His selection of those disciples knowing, as a true prophet should, their character.

The NT clearly says that He knew the hearts of men and needed no one to tell Him what men were truly like. He announced even before hand that one of His disciples, one of the 12, was a devil. But in the context of the NT, THAT disciple was a necessary evil to deliver Him to a Roman cross at the appointed time. Please realize what He said about the one who betrayed Him, that it would have been better for him that he not be born. There is no stronger condemnation possible.

If Muhammad's teachings are so obviously flawed with respect to something as important as those who previously received the truth then why should anyone trust anything that he was reputed to have said?

As far as I can see the only possible solution to the dilemma (to avoid its horns) is to refute Muhammad's claims about Jesus and the Jews, which would probably lead to one of four courses of theological action:

1) Become the Islamic equivalent of a liberal church or synagogue where even though the proper words or on the door it's a theological free for all once inside. That wouldn't make them necessarily peaceful, only apostate.

2) Become a Christian.

3) Seek to convert to Judaism.

4) Simply cease to be a Muslim by becoming secular or else by adopting some other religious or theological tradition not mentioned my Muhammad.

[HOTTIEBOY]

One large English-language poster read, "Go home Pope" and showed the pontiff's face on the head of a pig, blood oozing from his mouth.

That wouldn't be anything like an image of a certain islamic icon with a bomb in his turban that the muslims rioted about, would it?

Where's the same outrage from Christians over this satirical message?

[reagan_fanatic]

One accused the Vatican of producing terror while another said, "Jesus is not the son of God, he is a prophet of Islam."

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)


Islam destroys souls, not saves them.

[Uncle Miltie]

The Crusades were a counterattack.

[Popman]

You guys are missing the most important sentence in the article

His main mission is to support Turkey's dwindling Christian communities and work to heal a 1,000-year-old rift with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, regarded by many as the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.

We all know the Moozies are in perpetual rage over virtually anything

The Pope is lining up support for the ultimate ideologically show down between the modern Christian civilization and the primitive element of Islam