On Pope Benedict and Muslims

I hope quite a few people read this Richard John Neuhaus post on the Pope and his ongoing dialog with Muslims, both for what it says about what the Pope actually has said and done, and for its history lessons. I think he does a nice job of putting current controversies into perspective.

In the post, he also recommends the following book by Mary Habeck (Yale University Press, January 2006):


Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror

In another First Things post, Robert Louis Wilken looks at the quote the Pope used the other day that so riled some people, and puts it into historical context.