History makes clarity

Postwatch puts things in historical perspective that should put things in perspective. We can be certain that the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus was critical of Islam when he said those words and engaged in that tyrade against enforcing religion by the sword. But he had good reason to do so:

.. when was the emperor Manuel writing this down? As Benedict says, but Shadid does not, during a siege of Constantinople. Not even the allegedly offensive Benedict underlines the plot: A siege against the crown of eastern Christianity by the Muslim Sultan Bayezid I.

What the headlines don't say about the context of Papa Benedict XVI's remarks is that he was lecturing against being unreasonable, because it goes against the reasonableness of God Almighty.