The Pope Seems To Be Getting What He Wanted

I'm impressed. More "moderate Muslims" have come out of the woodwork in the past 48 hours than in the previous 5 years. Could the press just not find them previously, or are we witnessing the opening of the first chink of debate in the apparently monolithic wall of Islam? Open book has collected dozens of links here and here. I liked this from the rector of a mosque in Marseilles: He's the Pope.

What do they want him to do? Why would he preach Islam over Christianity?" "Benedict XVI," he said, "stands up for who he is. Now why can't Muslims say, '"All right, and this is who we are,' but there's no need to go into all the polemics."

"Besides, I don't see why they should be taking it out on the Pope when they should have it out among themselves, among those who have discredited Islam. No, I don't see why I should be angry at the Pope."

Of course al-Qaeda in Iraq, in a spirit of dialogue, begs to differ (curtsy: Tim Blair):

We say to the servant of the cross (the Pope): wait for defeat ... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. "We continue our jihad. We will not stop until the banner of unicity flies throughout the world," said the statement attributed to the Mujahideen consultative council.
"We will smash the cross ... (you will have no choice but) Islam or death," the statement added, citing a hadith (saying of the Prophet Mohammed) promising Muslims they would "conquer Rome ... as they conquered Constantinople."

I picked up only a smattering of Arabic while in the Holy Land, but I think that means: "The Pope is utterly correct."