Pope "Eggs" Benedict and the Turkey. Or, was it Bologna?

Perhaps the media is having a hard time processing the importance of the palpal visit to Turkey.
Reuters is raving about Turkey's "welcome" to the Pope Benedict XVI. United Press International says that the Pope's visit is "easing tensions." But, the Muslims in Turkey don't seem to be singing the same tune.

Let the gainsaying begin.

Reuter's went on to say that fears of large protests were "unfounded." Why, then, were there 3,000 police officers needed to keep order?

If the response was so "positive" to the Pope's visit, why, according to the Pope's own blog, were there only 250 people in attendance at the open air mass he conducted at the shrine at Efes?

(BTW, I think its awesome that the Pope, 79, has a blog, even if it is pure PR. I conjured the image of the Pontiff sitting at an iMac typing away at his Blogger account and laughed for about 15 minutes solid.)

ABC, Small Gov Times, and CNN say that thousands have been in protest since prior to the Pope's arrival. All of them pulled the story from the contradictory Reuters wire.

Nicely done modern media.

Perhaps the coverage should be contradictory. It's fitting, considering that Pope "Eggs" Benedict is under such scrutiny in the Muslim world.

Recall September, when Eggs made a speech in Regensburg, Germany that inflamed the Muslim world quoting 14th Century Christian Emporer Paleologus who said that the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhumane" things. (Read more on this statement)

Muslim protests followed.

The "Sausage-fest" of Vatican cronies apologized. Even after Muslim extremists destroyed a couple of churches and murdered a nun in Somalia, Eggs did not.

On the issue of Christian-Muslim relations, Eggs seems to be set on saying and doing all that the politicians cannot, and speaking with a firm, intellectually conservative voice.

So, why is he in Turkey, a Muslim country? After all, Eggs publically objected to Turkey's application for membership into the EU in 2004, saying the country is "in permanent contrast to Europe."

The media's message: (If you read between the lines)

Eggs and his sausage-fest of advisors still believe that Islam is connected with violence. When al-Qaeda in Egypt spoke out to say that the Pope's visit is part of a "crusader campaign," the Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi translated it as a threat of violence.

He said that they are not concerned, but that "[T]his type of message shows once again the urgency and importance of a common commitment of all forces against violence."

The Issue of Palestine
The Pope is not a Crusader. Rather, he is a firm believer in non-violence. He believes that an intellectual conversion is the only genuine one and that violence corrupts the process of personal conversion.

But, the Palpal history is not unblemished when it comes to Muslim-Christian relations, and when Egg's positions on Islam, Turkey and the EU are brought to the table for a discussion about violence, crusading and Palestine, that history cannot be disregarded.

Eggs recognizes that the Turkish people are different. Unlike the majority of Christians in Europe, they are strong supporters of Palestine. Without a reconcilitation on such a volatile issue in world politics, the two idealogical sides have no place entering into an economic or a political contract.

Forget violence. Forget John Paul's legacy of cooperation and mediation. Forget the EU. The root of this visit is, on the eve of Turkey's enduction into the EU, to remind the world that the Turkish people stand against Israel.

And who better to highlight a religious divide in Jerusalem than the Pope himself?