Pope and Islam

This past Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI said that he was "deeply sorry" and regretted the reaction to his comments about the prophet Muhammad that he made during an academic speech the week before at a German university. The pontiff had quoted a 14th-century Christian description of Islam as "evil and inhuman," causing Islamist leaders from around the world to demand an apology.

In this piece from All Things Considered, commentator Joe Loconte (9/19/06 - 3:45) makes the point that it's possible "to make the right point in the wrong way." Loconte argues that Christianity has its own rich history of violence and irrationality from which the Pope might have selected his illustration.

Musings

• This NPR page conveniently cites world opinion on the Pope's comment and "apology." It is sometimes hard to get U.S. students interested in what the rest of the world thinks about anything, but these diverse opinions might arouse some interest.
  
  
• Political correctness is an often maligned term, since it entails a certain softening from what others might see as "straight-shooting" or the "unvarnished truth." (See more at Wikipedia.) The problem is that there are lots of situations when all of us are trained (rightly?) to say what's expected, what's polite--think of interviews with ball players, who are trained never to criticize a teammate in public.