#1) Calling Mohammed "evil and inhuman"
First Prize here goes to none other than the Pope. You know, your Holiness, maybe if you are trying to build bridges with the Muslims of the world, it is a bad idea to quote a rival and contemporary of Mohammed.
If you want to Piss off Muslims everywhere, let's dispairage their prophet. When did that become ok? When was the last time a high profile Muslim figure publicly dissed Saint Paul? It's the same damn thing.
The pope was trying to make a point about the futility of religious war. The exact quote is as follows:
"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."
Now if I were a Muslim, I would be pissed that the Pope should choose to quote this, rather than one of his papal predecessors.
Yes, the followers of Mohammed did slaughter, pillage and burn in their zeal to spread the teachings of their prophet. Yes Mohammed did advocate spreading his teachings by the sword if they could not be taught peacefully, but do you remember a little series of incidents called the Crusades? In this, Catholics are just as guilty as Islamic Jihadis. Perhaps it was a tad indelicate for His Holiness to attack Islam given his own church's history of conversion through spilled blood.
#2) Depicting the Prophet as a cartoonThe Muslim Faith expressly prohibits the depiction of the Prophet or Allah in any form. We all know many Muslims are very sensitive about their religion. Any perceived insults against their faith are met with a great deal of hostility. Whether this is because of insecurity or some sense of victimization, I don't know.
I do think it bad taste to disparage a religion on the whole. I would ask if it is better to show the founder of the religion in caricature form, or a racist archetype of "an Arab" to put one's point across?
#3) Waging hegemonic war in IraqInvading a sovereign power in the Middle East leads to resentment. Who knew? Toppling a secular state like Iraq was less of a slap in the face to Islam than, say, bombing Mecca to dust. Still, it was certainly offensive to a great many Muslim clerics who were quick to question our purpose there, and condemn Bush for invading a country we had no business in... Or were those our own citizens?
At any rate, Muslims, specifically Arab Muslims, were not happy with our invasion. Many radical clerics took this opportunity to inflame tensions across the Muslim world and incite violence in Iraq. The American war in Iraq is still a major sore spot in our relations with Muslim nations.
