The Pope v Muslims

I am sure most of you have heard the Pope's recent comments on muslims. Of course his comments weren't even his own, but a quote from a 14th century emperor. The quote he used was:

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, normally I have absolutely no use whatsoever for the Pope. However, in this instance, his point was essentially correct. Muhammad spread Islam with the sword personally and encourage others to do. There's really no getting around it. The truly hilarious thing is all of this is the reaction of Muslims worldwide. Many have responded by firebombing churches, burning the Pope in effigie, and showing up at rallies calling for the Pope's head and protesting, among other things, freedom. It is almost as if they are TRYING to prove the Pope correct. Basically they've responded to the accusation that they are violent with a "take that back or I'll kill you," apparently missing the irony of the whole situation. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, although I don't think there's much of a chance that the Pope will stick by his guns for very long. Hopefully one day they'll be someone who will pick up the gauntlet from the Pope and Danish Cartoon publishers and actually stand up for their freedom to criticize Islam no matter how violent the muslims get.