Muslims believe that Jesus, peace be upon him, is a messenger of Allah and he invited the Israelis to the true religion but they refused to embrace Christianity and humiliated and oppressed the God’s messenger. Muslims are also ordered that they should treat the People of Book, particularly the Christians with tolerance and mercy.

The Holy Qur’an says: “.. and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: We are Christians That is because amongst them are priests and monks, and thy are not proud.” (Surah Al-Maidah — Verse: 82.) Unfortunately the Catholic popes have been narrow-minded and intolerant when it comes to Muslims. They reject any cordial relations based on mutual respect and understanding with Muslims.

We know all about the Crusades. After pronouncing a solemn vow, each warrior received a cross from the hands of the pope or his legates, impressing on the faithful that it was a virtuous deed to fight and kill the Muslims. The popes also granted to crusaders indulgences and temporal privileges, such as exemption from civil jurisdiction, inviolability of persons or lands, etc.

The prime instigator of the first Crusade was Peter the Hermit who initiated a campaign of hatred against Muslims and called upon the Christians of Europe to fight against Muslims. His Crusade was routed even before his band of fighters could set foot on Syrian soil.

According to one historian, “The Crusaders were notorious for their savageries and massacres. After the victory at Maarat Al-Noman in Syria the Crusaders killed all the Arabs including Christians. These victims, whose numbers crossed 100,000, were unarmed civilians.

It was the practice of the Crusaders to kill all the inhabitants of the land they invaded, demolish their buildings and burn their cultural achievements including libraries. The Crusaders consigned to flames the famous Dar Al-Hekma library in the Eastern Tripoli, which contained about 100,000 volumes.

Richard the Lion-hearted did not hesitate to kill 2,700 Muslim prisoners at the top of the hill near Akka and rip open the stomachs of their bellies looking for the gold and jewels they swallowed and to take their gall bladders to use as medicine.

According to the historian Gibbon, the Crusaders slaughtered 70,000 Muslims including old men, women and children in one of their orgies of blood in July 1099. The slaughtering continued for three days. Some people escaped the bloodbath because Christian soldiers were so physically tired that they could not slaughter any more. Godfrey, the Duke of Bouillon, had written to the pope about his liberation of the holy lands from the Muslim infidels, boasting that he killed Muslims in such great numbers that “the horses of his soldiers were standing up to the middle of their bodies in the blood of Muslims. We destroyed all their places of worship.”

While the present pope blasphemes the Prophet, peace be upon him, and describe his message as evil all the known historical records prove beyond doubt that it was the Christians who started a campaign of hatred and war against the Muslims in the middle ages. Nobody challenges the historical fact that Peter the Hermit with the overwhelming support of Pope Urban II sent preachers to different parts of Europe stirring up hatred against Muslims in preparation for the first Crusade (1095-99). The Second Crusade (1147-49) was spearheaded by Bernard of Clairvaux. The Third Crusade was preached by Pope Gregory VIII and commanded by Richard I of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Pope Innocent III launched the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), while Pope Innocent III launched the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). His successor, Honorius III, began to preach the Fifth Crusade (1217-21). King Andrew II of Hungary, Duke Leopold VI of Austria, John of Brienne, and the papal legate Pelasius were among the leaders of the expedition.

The popes sowed hatred and intolerance against other religions, particularly Muslims and Arabs and played arguably the greatest role in making the people of Europe blind with bigotry and hatred toward Islam, the religion of peace and tolerance.

The British and French occupation of the Arab countries in the 19 and 20th centuries could be called the eighth Crusade. Though this Crusade did not bear the marks of a rabid religious zeal, they oppressed the Arabs and forcefully founded a Jewish state in Palestine destabilizing the entire Arab region with various strategies of colonization, mandate and tutelage.

Against the backdrop of the long history of the Western Christian leadership promoting intolerance and hatred there is nothing surprising in Pope Benedict XVI making a statement full of hatred and contempt toward Muslims denigrating their Prophet. What he quoted in his speech in a German university was an excerpt from the history of the time of Crusades.

An error committed by a pope is very serious by virtue of his position. There are people who take even his erroneous statements as divinely inspired. Some people justify him because of his supposed ignorance of history. Some others justify him because of his lack of experience in political diplomacy. I do not believe that he is unfamiliar with the ways of modern diplomatic methods. He is only expressing a hatred and enmity against Islam that he inherited from the past popes.

The Muslim world unanimously demands an official and written apology from the pope. But he will not offer such an apology because of his conviction that Islam is not a religion at all and that Muslims are the enemies of Christianity. His statement echoed the one earlier by US President Bush that his is a crusade against the “Islamic fascists”.

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