I do not read minds...I do not KNOW what Benedict had in his head when he gave that speech....(I do not KNOW even that he wrote it all), but I have opinions.

The Pope either was taking a barely disguised swipe at Islam, OR he was careless in his choice of examples.....neither of which speaks to whether he was right in his thesis, or whether Islam NEEDS a swipe or two.

I tend to think he had his scholars hat on, and was merely careless, but I'd only give about 5:3 odds on that. He SHOULD have realized that line would provoke a response....Islam these days has a hair-trigger on their 'insult meter', and there is a large % of them who are looking for any excuse to attack any westerners and any other religion or government for perceived insults.

   The whole attitude behind the response to his speech IS irrational, but when you have a LARGE number of irrational members in a group, like the old Ku Klux Klan, you have a limited number of ways to deal with them......and you'd better be ready if you choose certain options!

The ONLY way I see is a long range plan to get cooperation of many moderate Islamic clerics in revising the notion that violence is an acceptable response to perceived slights.