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Why the Pope Has Bin Laden Running Scared
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008

ARTICLE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Publication Date: March 27, 2008

The release last week of Osama bin Laden's latest rant -- which featured fulminations over cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammed and charges that Pope Benedict XVI is leading a "new crusade" against Islam -- sparked a fresh round of head-scratching worldwide.

Even for a cave-dwelling terrorist, the tirade seemed odd. Hadn't Benedict criticized the very cartoons that bin Laden cited as his grievance du jour? Hadn't Benedict condemned the violence in Iraq for years and again this month, during an impassioned Palm Sunday address in which he lamented the death of kidnapped Iraqi Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho?

Sure, Benedict had drawn the ire of Muslims in 2006, when radical Islamist clerics used an out-of-context quote from his Regensburg lecture on faith and reason to incite mob violence against Christians. But Benedict apologized repeatedly for that perceived slight against Islam. And the 80-year-old former professor -- who chose his papal name in honor of the pope who pleaded for peace during World War I -- has spent the past three years doggedly pursuing interfaith understanding.

So why does Benedict infuriate bin Laden?

A glimpse of an answer came Saturday, during the Easter vigil Mass that Benedict celebrated in Rome. Among seven converts to the Catholic faith whom he baptized was a former Muslim named Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian journalist known for his outspoken criticism of Islamist extremism.

Allam has been a leading voice of moderate Islam, a staunch supporter of Israel and a fierce critic of Islamist jihadists who murder in the name of God. Death threats have forced Allam to travel with armed guards, and he expects that his Christian conversion will lead to more calls for his head. But Allam says the risk is worthwhile, and he cites Benedict's message about the compatibility of faith and reason as an inspiration for his conversion.

Predictably, Benedict's decision to personally and publicly baptize Allam was blasted by several Muslim leaders. The Vatican newspaper responded by describing the baptism as Benedict's attempt to affirm "in a gentle and clear way, religious freedom."

The message was clear, indeed. The baptism signaled Benedict's belief that religious tolerance must be a two-way street. As he proclaimed in his Regensburg speech, authentic interfaith dialogue, like authentic religious conversion, can happen only when violence is rejected as a means of persuasion and reason is embraced as a means of finding common ground.

Benedict's penchant for promoting peace with strength and telling the truth in charity has irked some Muslim leaders, but it has allowed him to make remarkable inroads with others. Earlier this month, some 10,000 Catholics attended the opening Mass of the first Catholic church ever built in the Sunni Muslim country of Qatar, where Christians have been forced to worship underground for decades. A few days later, Vatican officials confirmed that they are in talks with Saudi Arabia to open a Catholic church in that country, where Christianity remains officially illegal. And the interfaith dialogue that Benedict began with a rocky start at Regensburg has blossomed into a significant initiative that will bring 48 Muslim and Catholic scholars together at the Vatican this fall to discuss the theme, "Love of God, Love of Neighbor."

Like Pope John Paul II, whose persistent reminders of the link between faith and freedom emboldened grassroots resistance to communism and enraged communist leaders, Pope Benedict has infuriated the global bullies of his day. To Islamist extremists who murder innocents in the name of their irrational and bloodthirsty god, Benedict's message about the compatibility of faith and reason undermines their efforts in a way no military campaign or secular leader could.

No wonder bin Laden is worried.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.