Yet another controversy has arisen over free speech, religion, and the centuries-reaching sensitivities of Islam. This time, it's the pope who has waded into the fray.
A statement from the Vatican has failed to dampen growing anger among Muslims around the world at a speech by the Pope in which he discussed the concept of holy war.
The Vatican said last night that Benedict XVI had not intended to offend when he quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor as saying the Prophet Muhammad had introduced only "evil and inhuman" ideas into the world.
"It certainly was not the intention of the Pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad and Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers," a Vatican spokesman said after Pope Benedict returned to Rome from his native Germany, where he made the speech.
Pakistan's parliament today unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Benedict for making "derogatory" comments about Islam and seeking an apology from him for hurting the feelings of Muslims.
The Pope's speech was about the historical and philosophical differences between Islam and Christianity, and the relationship between violence and faith.
Stressing that the words were not his own, he quoted from a book according to which, the Pope said, the Byzantine emperor Manuel Paleologos II said: "Show me just what Muhammad 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."
Clearly aware of the delicacy of the issue, the Pope used the words "I quote" twice before repeating the emperor's reported remarks on Islam, which he described as "brusque".
Since the pontiff's speech on Tuesday, Muslim leaders around the world have criticised his use of the emperor's words.
The resolution in Pakistan, moved by the hardline MP Fazal Karim, was supported by government and opposition members of the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament.
Chaudhry Ameer Hussain, speaker of the National Assembly, allowed Mr Karim to move the resolution after he said the Pope had insulted Islam and the Prophet Muhammad by making "derogatory remarks".
This morning, Britain's Ramadhan Foundation, a youth organisation based in Rochdale, reacted angrily to the comments, comparing the Pope unfavourably with his predecessor John Paul II.
In a statement, it said: "If the Pope wanted to attack Islam and Prophet Muhammad's teachings, he could have been brave enough to say it personally without quoting a 14th-century Byzantine Christian emperor."
The controversy is now impacting the pope's up-coming visit to Turkey, where the highest Muslim religious authority has demanded an apology.
The question raised here is much like the one raised by the Mohammad cartoon controversy. It is: should the Mulsim world be as willing as other religions are to confront modernity, including allowing criticism of its texts and history, without flying into a relious furor. In that case, I sided with those who said that the cartoons, which included various defamatory depictions of Mohammad, crossed the line into intentional offense, and I felt that the Danish newspaper that published them was in the wrong. In this case, however, it's a tougher call. The pope was speaking of a 600 year old treatise. At the same time, he didn't have to quote the passage at all. I'll have to read the entire speech, to understand the context. But the pope is no doubt aware, as many of us have become, that for many Muslims, memories are long, and history is prologue.
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
