Ecumenicalism Another One-Way Street

Pope Benedict XVI is still diligently attempting to kiss Muslim ass over the understated but overly-deserved criticism he directed at Islam a couple of months back, which naturally gave Muslims another excuse to throw another violent temper tantrum:

Pope Benedict XVI began his first visit to a Muslim country Tuesday with a message of dialogue and "brotherhood" between Christians and Muslims in an attempt to ease anger over his perceived criticism of Islam....

"All feel the same responsibility in this difficult moment in history, let's work together," Benedict said during his flight from Rome to Ankara, where more than 3,000 police and sharpshooters joined a security effort that surpassed even the visit of President Bush two years ago.

The pope used his first moments of his four-day trip to try to mend fences with Islamic leaders.

"We know that the scope of this trip is dialogue and brotherhood and the commitment for understanding between cultures ... and for reconciliation," he told reporters on his plane.

"Mend fences"? Pardon me, but don't Muslim leaders have a helluva lot more fences to mend with Christian leaders - to say nothing of their Jewish counterparts? How can Benedict, with a straight face, speak of "brotherhood" with a demonic faith possessed of homocidal intolerence, delusions of global conquest, and dark visions of jihadic apocalypse? For what does he have to apologize given that his mere quote of a 14th century Christian emperor who quite factually characterized Islam as "a religion spread by the sword" and the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" was in the context of the self-evident incompatibility of legitimate faith and violence? Did not the very violent Muslim reaction to Benedict's words amply prove his implicit point that Islam is not a religion but a psychopathic fascist political ideology?

As if to prove the point yet again, a vanguard of "the religion of peace" has called for a massive attack against the Vatican - this time via cyberspace:

An appeal to Jihadist hackers was sent out through Web forums linked to al-Qaida and was posted on two of the Web sites that publish messages from the terrorist organization.

"The leadership of the electronic Jihad has decided to undertake a grand attack against the official Vatican site following the insults by the Pope against our Prophet," the statement read in Arabic, referring to remarks the Pope made in a September 12 speech.

"With Allah's blessing, the attack will succeed thanks to the help of our brothers if we all attack simultaneously. We ask all our brothers to be present at the hour of the attack for a joint action, because they (Catholics) have struck our religion. They must be fought and deserve to be attacked and not only on their Internet site.”

I understand that the pope can't tell Islamist fanatics to go pound sand or do something anatomically impossible. That isn't his mission. But neither is it his job to "give what is holy to dogs, and....throw your pearls before swine, [lest] they....trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

If Benedict is going to go to Turkey, let it be to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let it be a true missionary journey worthy of the Apostle Paul, not an unrequitted ecumenical gauntlet that can only feed the bloodthirsty appetites of the devil's advocates.

Meanwhile, let us give Islamists the war they lust after with such ghoulish gusto - and then some.