The Pope and the Muslims

Ahead of Pope Benedict’s trip to Turkey later this month, a lot of preparations are going on. Some are preparing to cause trouble.

Police say they have arrested a man who allegedly fired a pistol into the air outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul, then shouted slogans in protest of Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit.

The man, who was identified by police sources as Ibrahim Ak, according to CNN Turk, threw the gun on the grounds of the consulate shortly before his arrest on Thursday.

“I don’t want him here, if he was here now I would strangle him with my bare hands,” the suspect, who identified himself as Ibrahim Ak, 26, told a Dogan news agency television camera as he was detained by police, according to The Associated Press.

“I fired the shots for God,” Ak said as he sat handcuffed inside a police van outside the consulate. “Inshallah (God willing), this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims.”

A starter for what? This hostility and extremism is really revealing, and Muslim clerics and leaders who don’t condemn it only give it more influence at a time when their moderate voices were only starting to speak up.

Sandro Magister has the best reporting of Benedict’s quiet successes recently with Muslim leaders, and it’s been more hopeful than at any time yet. In an upcoming article for an Italian magazine, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone notes a few good signs.

The cardinal secretary of state announces a reinforcement of the activities of the apostolic nunciatures in Muslim countries, and a more systematic use of the Arabic language by the Vatican.

It expresses hope for increased “dialogue with the thinking [Muslim] élites, with the confidence of reaching the masses after this, of changing mentalities and educating consciences.”

The Muslim elites had better reach the masses and change their mentalities before the guy with the gun and the threats does.