The Pope puts his foot in it

Benedict XIV raised a storm by quoting a 14th century emperor to the effect that Mohammad's spreading the faith by violence was evil. In his apology he protested that he was only quoting, but that begs the question of why he was quoting in the first place if he didn't agree with the quote.

Most people would agree that violence is no way to spread faith, and the point is well taken. But Benedict should not forget that Christianity for centuries used violence for that very purpose. Think of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the endless Catholic-Protestant wars. It is true that these conflicts were really about land grabs, power struggles and such, but religion was used as a motivating factor. Surely an apology would be appropriate here.

Is the present Muslim violence in the Middle East an attempt to spread Islam? I don't think so.
Rather it is a reaction to the political/economic dominance and damage of the area and its inhabitants by the western nations for the past two hundred years. So the Pope is missing the point. Muslims could care less which god we worship; Al Quaeda and their followers don't hate us for what we are, as Bush and Harper would have us believe, but for what we have done to them. And for what we are still doing.