Moslems Demand Pope's Removal

From Lycos News:
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - About 1,000 Muslim clerics and religious scholars meeting Thursday in eastern Pakistan demanded the removal of Pope Benedict XVI for making what they called "insulting remarks" against Islam.

Benedict "should be removed from his position immediately for encouraging war and fanning hostility between various faiths" and "making insulting remarks" against Islam, said a joint statement issued by the clerics and scholars at the end of their one-day convention.

The "pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to the Prophet (Muhammad). ... If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences," it said.

It is interesting that these imams believe they have the right to demand the removal of the (temporal) head of the Catholic Church, whom Catholics believe to be the Vicar of Christ on Earth. People will laugh this off, but it is a telling insight into the foundational worldview of a religion that believes it has the right, not to convert, but to rule, and which accepts no criticism from anyone outside the faith. One is reminded of the words of Tasnim Aslam from the Pakistani Foreign Ministry: "Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence."

Given the insults to the Pope and to Jesus Christ on the part of Moslem demonstrators recently – “Jesus is the slave of Allah,” and “Exterminate those who mock Islam,” and “Be prepared for the real holocaust” being typical (look at the news photos on the web, e.g. here, if you don’t believe me) – I am amazed that Catholics aren’t rioting in the streets. After all, the media will tell us that Christians are the real threat to world peace and brotherhood. Why aren’t they out there burning something? I guess they're too busy trying to spread the gospel and tend to widows and orphans.

What would have been the newspaper and television response to a demonstration where Christians demanded the removal of the local imam, or carried signs advocating the extermination of anyone? Sorry…rhetorical question.

Pray for the conversion of Islam.