There are 1.4 billion Muslims and Pope Benedict XVI has managed to anger any number of them by quoting a medieval Greek Orthodox emperor (eastern rite, Constantinople), Paleologos ("old word" in Greek, literally). Old Paleologos had no use for Islam, referring to its alleged precept to spread the faith by the sword.
The pope has since been troubled with having to explain his alleged insult, and every time he opens his mouth, he seems to draw new controversy. Muslims are threatening to kill Catholics over the incident and may already have. The irony is that the pope was calling attention to an alleged Muslim propensity to resort to violence when claiming insult. Do the Muslims display an alleged propensity to behave calmly in the face of such criticism? Just the opposite, enough of them play right into the criticism, as though to underline its correctness, thereby messing things up for all the Muslims who are not resorting to violence. The few ruin it for the many who, presumably, prefer to live in peace, as only a few seem bent on making trouble.
Muslim trouble is not to be disregarded, as 9-11 attests.
Christians, Muslims, and Jews have been at each others' throats for a long time. It's almost enough to make you believe that God is a fiction invented to provide a fig leaf for all the killing done in His name, but really done in ours.
We humans kill a lot of people in the name of our Lord. Sam Harris's "Letter to a Christian Nation" (samharris.org) takes religion to task over this.
The problem is that traditional notions of religion have provided the organizing principle for the world, from the ancient Greeks (the Olympian pantheon), the Romans (Caesar Augustus), Europe (Christianity), the Middle East (Islam), India (Hindu), China (Tao), America (fundamentalist Christianity mixed with secularism, rational science, etc.)
Religion doesn't seem in any danger of disappearing any time soon. Yet it is our biggest obstacle to employing the clear, hard thinking exhibited by the ancient Greeks, as opposed to the mysticism advanced by Christians and Jews.
Our choices are to use our heads or our hearts, but it's a lot harder to use your head.
The conflict is between thinking your way past religion, which we call science, or sticking to religion as a way of avoiding thinking altogether. If you don't think, you can live in bliss, as in the old saying:
If ignorance is bliss, then 'tis folly to be wise.
The pope's problem is that of the pot calling the kettle black. He can't afford to indulge in critical thinking and intellectual honesty any more than the Muslims or any other person who believes that the idea of God has some relevance to explaining the natural world or the relief of suffering, for the old god has a monopoly on suffering. For a supposedly all-powerful, all-knowing God, he adds a lot to the store of suffering but prevents none. Traditionally what we do in such cases is to invent a new, improved version of God, relegating the old, but we seem to be stuck on hold with the current immoral one and don't want to think about it. It's too politically incorrect to do otherwise.
The story goes that if Jerusalem were destroyed in a nuclear blast, believers would make relics of the ash.
Perhaps we should establish a string of temples to morality, the prevention and alleviation of suffering. We could have altars, ministers, and all the other good paraphernalia that we enjoy having, choirs, music, dancing, feasts, and the like. Only we wouldn't slit each others' throats. That would be one of the top commandments, if we had commandments. Do we need commandments? Probably we should have two: Prevent suffering and no throat-slitting, anytime, for any reason, ever. Carve it in stone. Get some good architects to design the buildings. Check your weapons at the door. We'll have prophets and saints, you know, people who've done good at preventing suffering and who don't slit throats. You wouldn't get thrown out for not believing right. All you'd have to do was to favor no-suffering and no-throat-slitting and you can join the singing and dancing, maybe meet a few nice people you could marry and raise kids with.
What could be better?
Or you could stick to your old religion, run by throat-slitting preachers whose dedication to preventing suffering is wanting.