"Are my fellow Muslims so weak in their faith that they think God needs their violence to defend His eternal truth? I believe that their weakness and ignorance of Islam is the reason that they fear honest debate."

Yahya Merchant

“The tragedy of the episode is that the Pope was arguing against the idea that violence can be justified in any religion. He was making the case for the compatibility of reason with religion at a time when fundamentalism is gaining terrifying ground across the religious spectrum.

The irony is that the Islamic response illustrates how desperately the world needs to hear his message.”

Ruth Gledhill

The sight of violent Muslim-hothead reaction to the ill-chosen words of the Pope is galvanising further anti-Islamic sentiment in the West.  It is time for moderate Islam to make its voice heard.