For a nice contrarian take on the recent Pope-insulting-Islam crisis, check out Jacob T. Levy's post at Open University here.

Basic point: of course the Pope thinks Islam is evil; it denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, and is therefore a false religion, leading people away from salvation. If that's not evil, what is? Think about it: a billion Muslims, all damned! That's evil on a world-historical scale. Again, if you're Pope, it seems to follow more or less directly. So: are his critics condemning Benedict for being a bad Pope, or simply for being a Pope at all?

All of this reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine discovers that her boyfriend Puddy is a born-again Christian. She gets very angry because, although he believes her to be damned, he doesn't seem to care. Elaine's reaction has always struck me as perfectly reasonable. Either Puddy is insincere about his beliefs, or he just doesn't care about Elaine burning in Hell for all eternity, and a fortiori doesn't care much for her welfare; either is a good reason to break off a relationship. Just as Puddy is being a bad Christian for not caring about the soul of a woman he supposedly is close to, so the Pope would be a bad Pope for not caring about damned Muslims. Wouldn't he?

All of this, of course, is compatible with it having been impolitic and unwise to bring up the "Islam is evil" remark where it really wasn't on point, especially if he wasn't willing to defend it on theological terms. And it's worth noting that I am in the "Pope bad!" camp.

(More discussion at Feministe, too.)