A Papal Smackdown

Normally, I hate when the Vatican gets involved in politics, but today the Pope is right on. The Vatican today has urged Muslim nations upset by the Danish cartoons to practice religious toleration in their own countries. As the Reuters article points out "limits on Christians in some Islamic countries are far harsher than restrictions in the West that Muslims decry, such as France's ban on headscarves in state schools. Saudi Arabia bans all public expression of any non-Muslim religion and sometimes arrests Christians even for worshipping privately. Pakistan allows churches to operate but its Islamic laws effectively deprive Christians of many rights." These are the states that the US media is trying to appease and "understand."