Last week, (the week September 11, 2006) Pope Benedict XVI quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor in a speech in Germany, neither endorsing it or condemning it: The pontiff quoted the emperor as saying: "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."

Some time later, I remember watching on television the carpet bombing that took place against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and I recalled the Northern Alliance taking village after village and the great Lion of Afghanistan, Shah Massoud, leading the his fierce Mujahidin forces until the Taliban had been rendered ineffective. A degree of retribution had been achieved for what had trsanpired on Septemebr 11, but only a degree. Much more was (and is) necessary or we will suffer the same fate, or worse, again.

After the Vatican failed to defuse the crisis, the pope confronted the controversy head on over the weekend. In an unusual move, he issued a personal apology. He said he was "deeply sorry" Muslims were offended and angered, stressing that the quotation at issue didn't "in any way express my personal thought." This quotation, unfortunately, was misunderstood," the pope said, alluding to days of protests and attacks on churches by offended Muslims. "In no way did I wish to make my own the words of the medieval emperor......I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason, go together," he said. He added that he hoped he had made "clear" his "profound respect for world religions and for Muslims.

We just watched the fifth anniversary program of the September 11 attacks and were struck by the enormity of the tragedy...but now, in retrospect, we understand much better the bombings of the Embassies and the USS Cole. Now we understand much better who our real enemies are. We understand that the war against "terror" is a mere tactic, and that Jihadist Islamic totalitarianism (such as in Iran) is the real enemy.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top cleric in Iran, called the pope's remarks "the latest link" in the "chain of conspiracy to set off a crusade." Seven churches were attacked in the West Bank and Gaza. The murder of an Italian nun in Somalia and two Assyrians in Iraq appaer connected. In Somalia the religious leader Hassan Malin urged Muslims to "hunt down" the pope and kill him "on the spot."These were representative of violence or threats of violence throughout the world. Muslims in Turkey, Iraq and the Palestinian territories demanded that Pope Benedict XVI make a clear apology for his remarks on Islam, instead of saying only that he was "deeply sorry" that Muslims had taken offense.