pope's remarks against islam:

On september 14 2006, pope benedict XVI while delivering a lecture at the university of regensburg quoted a passage from a 14th century book written by the then emperor of byzantine. The passage 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."Naturally, there was immense opposition from Islamic leaders and islamic lobbies from around the world.This is another example of a war in the fifth dimension. A war not fought with guns and explosives, but with words.Why the pope chose to quote such a controversial passage in an unanswered question, although one may safely comment upon it. The rivalry between the religions of islam and christianity is well known. this rivalry has been fuelled by islamic fundamentalism and terrorism that has done much harm to states with a christian majority.Today, in the United states, a lot of people despise muslims. After the september 11 attack, there were many cases of muslims being killed or tortured all across the "christian" world. Why did this happen?Many people in the US don't know enough about islam. for them, a muslim is the man who prays five times a day and wears a skull cap most of the times.In short, there has not been enough cultural assimilation among the muslims and the christians.A cultural change may help us out in this situation. By a cultural change, I mean cultural assimilation between the muslims and the christians. How many christians know about famous muslims?People should be allowed by the society and the religion to mix freely with other religions and be culturally one with them. There should be a number of agencies and events through which muslims and christians can come together and work on similar grounds. One may go even further to say that the scriptures of religions should be modified, so as to increase the tolerance against people of other religions.Just think of the americans who killed muslims post-9/11. would they have resorted to such violence had they been intimately related to a muslim, or visited mosques or tombs? would they have been so lethal if they were taught the positive aspects of the islam religion and its contributin to today's world? would they have killed muslims if in their neigbourhood, there wasn't a single world spoken against muslims?and, would the pope, in full media presence, have chosen to quote just that particular passage, had he been culturally educated and culturally friendly with islam?