More on the Pope and Islam

I just read a very interesting article commenting on the Pope's speech, that took a tack I hadn't actually considered before. It insisted that the Pope and the Vatican, in general, are not idiots, and that he very likely knew exactly what he was doing in the speech. That is, the speech was meant to be offensive, and was meant to take a stand against Islamic violence and extremism. It was meant to challenge Islamic leaders to examine themselves and determine whether they are going to choose to be rational or not.

ETA: found it here.

In this vein, this is an interesting blog entry about a statement supporting the Pope, when his speech is view in the light of a challenge to Islam to be rational.