jihad

This week, Pope Benedict quoted a 14th-century emperor who said that the Muslim religion is spread through violence. The pope also said that Muslims need to have both faith and reason in order to achieve God's will.

I think he may have had a point.

Protestors outside Westminster Cathedral during Sunday mass:

Murdered nun Sister Leonella Sgorbati and her family in Italy. She was 66 and was shot in the back yesterday while leaving her place of work--a children's hospital in Somalia.

(Pics are from Michelle Malkin's blog, as is the following:)


My friend Lorenzo Vidino, counterterrorism expert and author of al Qaeda in Europe, sent the above photo and this note:

Attached is a picture of the Pope that is circulating in Qaeda-friendly chat rooms and websites. Lovely (and predictable) that they call for his beheading.

The script in red calls for the Pope's beheading. The rest of the translation:

"Swine and servant of the cross, worships a monkey on a cross, hateful evil man, stoned Satan, may Allah curse him, blood-sucking vampire."

Funny, for people who are so touchy about their religion being insulted, they aren't very careful about insulting others. Of course, so many of them believe that all others are infidels who deserve to be converted at the point of a sword or killed. It isn't fun to think about, but whether we care to believe it or not, we are engaged in a world-wide holy war.

Sorry for the uncharacteristic seriousness, but these are pretty serious times we're living in.