Re: Islam was spread by the sword? What about Christianity?

Giles wrote:
The Pope has got in hot water for quoting an obscure Byzantine emperor
Manuel Paleologos II who once said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought
that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman,
such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Wasn't Christianity spread by the sword? I am thinking of the Crusades,
the Conquistadors, the Roman Empire enforcing Christianity as the sole
religion of Europe. Other examples are the crushing of Native Americans
to make North America a Christian land (Protestant), and bringing
Christianity to the new colonies of Africa in the 19th Century.


I am very surprised that the Pope has put his foot in it like this. He
is a scholar, perhaps, rather than a diplomat, and I do not doubt that
he did his research well and that he wanted to use the quote in a
context that was not offensive. But if he really thought he could do
that, he must be very, very naive. And where, in the name of St
Peter's, were his advisers, to fail to warn him of the likely reaction?

In the present climate he could hardly have acted more stupidly if he
had tried.

The latest I heard was that the Vatican Ambassador to Pakistan has been
called in by the Pakistani government for a major telling off.
.

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