1. Cartoons can be far more inflamatory in a culture that is dependent upon images. For the decades of covering news in the Middle East, we constantly see images of burning flags and effigies of whomever those protesting feel we should see. These images are carefully orchestrated as evidenced by some of the more boisterous protests occuring in nations/regions where protests are strictly forbidden.

2. Denmark, Israel, the United States, Germany or any other nation that has been the target at the center of these outrages are just nations and therefore easily bombed, manipulated or painted as being completely against Islam. Christianity is far larger than any nation, just as any religion is, and you cannot bomb Christianity nor can you manipulate a 2,000 year-old institution. It has always been said by Islamists Christianity is against Islam, but this argument is not as sound as other arguments because Muhammed did confirm the teachings in the Bible and the Torah.

In a bizarre contrast to the words of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei who claimed the Pope's words were the deeds of the United States and Zionists, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Pope's comments were taken out of context, adding "there is no doubt that there are those who release incorrect information." Indeed there are, and in the context of Ahmadinejad lightly rebuking Khamenei we must assume Ahmadinejad believes Khamenei releases "incorrect information." No argument there.

Souad Sbai, the president of the Confederation of Moroccans in Italy, claims the media has overblown the reaction to the Pope's comments. "The Arab world is a big place and apart from a few demonstrations by extremists, I do not detect the great anger amongst Arabs that the images of recent days have shown," Sbai said. Indeed that may be completely accurate and I don't doubt it is, but the reactions that have been denounced are those not denounced by Islamic leaders.

Those actions not denounced include, but are not limited to, the following:

• A nun in Somalia murdered execution style. The nun asked for forgiveness of her attackers.
• Gaddafi's son saying the Pope should convert to Islam if he's a reasonable man.
• Islamic clerics in Gaza asking the Pope to convert to Islam, claiming there won't be peace until such a conversion.
• The Mujahideen Shura Council declaring a holy war (jihad) on the Vatican.
• Pakistan's parliament repudiating the Pope.
• The Muslim Brotherhood lashing out at the Pope.
• A Christian youth center in Gaza being bombed. Yes, a youth center.
• Televised protests where an effigy of the Pope is burned, along with flags of other nations that somehow represent the Pope (?).
• The Iranian president of the Organization of Culture and Islamic Relations suggesting to send a delegation of Islamic clerics to the Vatican to instruct the Pope on what is Islam.
• The Islamic Army of Iraq threatening to bomb the Italian embassy in Baghdad. "Here is the truth that comes out of the crusaders struggle that the Western religious chiefs are conducting, offending Islam and the Prophet, and here is the head of the Vatican, who on the occasion of 11 September did just what the Danish press did last year, that is, attack the Prophet, while speaking of reason and Jihad" the statement reads.
• A member of the ruling party of Somalia has vowed to hunt down and kill the Pope.
• Al Qaida-linked Jund al-Sham calling for the Pope to be tried by Islamic Law (Sharia).

But the statement by Jund al-Sham actually confirms exactly what I have long believed in this entire ordeal. Islamists will use whatever they can to declare their jihad, for they know if they wish to remake the entire world under their banner they must galvanize the Islamic street to back them against a common enemy. It just so happens today, at this very moment, the Vatican is that enemy.

Also contained in the Jund al-Sham communique is the following:

"Time and time again, the dogs unleash attacks against us and Mohammed, claiming that he represents evil and corruption. The latest is the dog of Rome who claims that Mohammed only brought bad things such as spreading Islam solely by the use of the sword," the Jund al-Sham message continues.

The pontiff's words "represent Christian hatred towards Islam," the message claims. For this reason, the group invites its supporters to apply the penalties foreseen by the Sharia [execution].

The Pope did not claim Islam only spreads or only spread by the sword. Not only did he quote someone else and neither say he agreed or disagreed with the quote, the quotation was that Islam was spread by the sword. That is not mutually exclusive and no one in their right mind could say Islam has only spread by the sword, but there's also little doubt that Islam has not also been spread by the sword.

As a Catholic Christian, allow me to try to clear something up that's also in the Jund al-Sham communique. Christians don't hate Islam and Catholics do not hate Islam. Largely we don't care. We think the belief system is wrong and we don't believe Muhammed was a prophet, but we don't care what anyone believes because we are resolute in our own beliefs. Muslism think we're wrong, but so what? So do Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Taoists, Buddhists, Atheists, etc. Never in my years of being forced to attend mass and Sunday School was I once told to murder those who believe differently than I, and even at a young age I would have said something to challenge whomever told me that.

It's this misleading the world as to the context of the speech to which, and again very oddly, Ahmadinejad briefly spoke upon. He's right in this context, and perhaps it's the only time you'll ever see me write Ahmadinejad was right about anything. But Ahmadinejad would do the world a favor if he were to look inword and within his own nation where some of the larger protests over either cartoons or the words from the Pope have come from. Of course he won't because his place in Iranian history depends on deceiving people.

An editorial in the Opinion Journal tries to cut right down to this misleading that is rampant in the Middle East.

Taken alone, these are strong words. However, the pope didn't endorse the comment that he twice emphasized was not his own. No matter. As with Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses," which millions of outraged Muslims didn't bother to read (including Ayatollah Khomeini, who put the bounty on the novelist's life), what Benedict XVI meant or even said isn't the issue. Once again, many Muslim leaders are inciting their faithful against perceived slights and trying to proscribe how free societies discuss one of the world's major religions.

By their reaction to the pope's speech, some Muslim leaders showed again that Islam has a problem with modernity that is going to have to be solved by a debate within Islam. The day Muslims condemn Islamic terror with the same vehemence they condemn those who criticize Islam, an attempt at dialogue-and at improving relations between the Western and Islamic worlds-can begin.

But who will be such an Islamic leader and when will he rise? If recent history is any guide to knowing when such a strong voice of reason will step up or what will happen to him, he'll likely be killed by those who claim they speak the true voice of Allah.

The events of just this past week alone underscore the control Islamists have over their flock and what a giant leap must be made before radical Islamic terrorism can ever be curtailed, and it is the Muslim mother, father, son and daughter who is almost always the first target of Islamist terrorist attacks yet they are routinely the first ones who also blindly follow the Imam's lead.

Please, read the Pope's comments before making your decision either way.