Reply #40: I voted Yes; I'm surprised there's any debate.

[Jack Rabbit]

Publicly defaming another's religious beliefs is something that well-mannered people don't do.

Islam is not monolithic. Tarring all Muslims with the same brush as medieval Muslims who demanded conversion at the point of a sword (and not even all medieval Muslims were guilty of that; check your Spanish history, please) or those Muslims today who think Jihad means a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv or flying a hijacked passenger jet into an office building is just wrong to begin with. To many Muslims, Jihad simply means verbally correcting somebody with a misconception about Islam.

I'm neither Muslim nor Catholic, but if somebody called the Pope a Roman dictator or said that Catholics let priests do their thinking for them, I would think an apology would be in order.

It is more than appropriate that the Pope should apologize for his remarks. More than approving that he apologized, I hope he understands the error of his ways.