[Chase]

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah... sure, the Pope wasn't completely accurate in his statements. But where are the voices of the moderate Muslims? They just told the world how offended they were, then they don't say a thing when these extremists say that they want to chop off heads and conquer the world?!

Ralphy put it best... Islam is in serious need for an enlightenment and/or reformation. I believe that most Muslims in the Western world have already abandoned violent interpretations of Islam. Christians went through their period of extremism centuries ago... but were able to, as a whole, become a far more peaceful religion.

However, what's going on in Middle East right absolutely startles me. Watching Islamic extremists manipulate the sensitivities of the average Muslim is disturbing. They're slowly destroying that religion from the inside. They're the only group that views this a religious conflict, while the West sees this as a war of ideologies. Major difference.

This is getting ridiculous, it really is. In these protests, you see the same sort of immaturity... over and over again. You saw it with the cartoon fiasco, and now we see it again. They're burning German flags because apparently they don't see a difference between church and state. It's like they see Germany as fueling the Pope. They burned Danish flags a while back. Okay, I'm in Sweden right now... and I can tell you that Scandinavians are the last people looking for trouble. In Iran, you have a president who is constantly offending Europe (and, of course, the United States). Europe and America are different in terms of foreign policy, that's obvious. Yet, I don't know how much longer Europe is willing to deal patiently with Islamic extremism. Islamic extremists are making a big mistake by dragging Europeans into this.

This is equally disturbing:
Sister Leonella, 65, a nun who devoted her life to helping ill people in Africa, used to joke there was a bullet with her name engraved on it in Somalia. When the bullet came, she used her last breaths to forgive those responsible.



"I forgive, I forgive," she whispered in her native Italian just before she died Sunday in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, the Rev. Maloba Wesonga told the Associated Press at the nun's memorial mass Monday in Nairobi, Kenya.



The attack by two gunmen was not random and could have been a result of the Muslim anger over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam and violence, said Willy Huber, regional head of the Austrian-financed hospital where the Roman Catholic nun worked.



But Abdurahman Mohamed Farah, deputy leader of the Islamic militia, disputed that, blaming it instead on Somali warlords who were driven out of Mogadishu in June.



Sister Leonella, whose birth name was Rosa Sgorbati, had lived and worked in Kenya and Somalia for 38 years. Her bodyguard also was slain.




Associated Press