The latest Muslim mass tantrum over Pope's reading of history

CNN:

Pope Benedict XVI came under a hail of criticism from the Islamic world Friday for comments he made earlier in the week regarding the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim faith, in some cities provoking street protests.

A growing chorus of Muslim leaders have called on the pope to apologize for the remarks he made in a speech in Germany on Tuesday when he used the terms "jihad" and "holy war."

Pakistan's National Assembly, parliament's lower house, unanimously passed a resolution on Friday condemning the pope's comments.

Muslim protesters shouted slogans against the pontiff at a rally in Jammu, India. And in Cairo, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the capital's al-Azhar mosque.

Meanwhile a youth center run by the Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip was slightly damaged by a small explosion on Friday, witnesses told Reuters.

It was unclear if the blast was connected to the pope's comments.

In his speech, Benedict quoted 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus who said, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Before quoting Paleologus during his address at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, the pontiff noted the "brusqueness," or discourteous nature of the emperor's statement.

"God," the emperor, as the pope quoted, said, "is not pleased by blood -- and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature." (Full story)

A transcript of the pope's remarks obtained by the Associated Press television network reads: "In the seventh (sura, or chapter of the Quran), the emperor comes to speak about jihad, holy war.

"The emperor certainly knew that Sura 2, 256, reads: 'No force in matters of faith'. It is one of the early suras, from a time -- as experts say -- in which Mohammed himself was still powerless and threatened.

"However, the emperor of course also knew the requirements about the holy war that were later formulated in the Quran. Without going into details like the handling of the owners of the scriptures, or non-believers, he (the emperor) turned to his interlocutors -- in a surprisingly brusque way -- with the central question after the relationship between religion and violence.

"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

A Vatican statement said Benedict was not trying offend Muslims with his remarks.

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Muslims can now add history to cartoons they find offensive. Perhaps this is one reason why their culture has been so unsuccessful lately. Throwing a tantrum everytime they hear or see something that offends them is not the act of a mature society or culture. It is the act of the emotionally immature. What is it about Islam that prevokes such emotionally immature responses?

One of the ironies of this mass tantrum is that it follows by only a few weeks a televised example of exactly what the Pope was referring to. Where were these protesters when the Fox News reportrer and his cameraman were forced to convert to Islam at the point of a gun. Why didn't they protest that. Why hasn't the rest of the media at least noticed the irony of the timing of this mass tantrum?