MUSLIM WORLD

Removing his shoes and standing in silent prayer beside a Muslim cleric inside Istanbul's Blue Mosque, Pope Benedict XVI created an indelible image of his willingness to open a dialogue with the Islamic world.

At the same time, the pope did not back away from his suggestion, made two months ago during a lecture at Germany's Regensburg University, that Islam had a problem with violence. (Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent)

The Pope who previously angered the Islamic world by quoting a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who said that most of the Prophet Mohammad's contributions to religion were "evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." showed off his diplomacy skills in Turkey and thereby won the hearts of those who previously fought him.

During his four-day stay in Turkey the pope avoided direct references to Islam, but his message was consistent:

"Above all, we wish to affirm that killing innocent people in God's name is an offense against him and against human dignity," the pope said in a joint declaration with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the Greek Orthodox church.

The Pope continued to pursue religious equality and reciprocity globally, urging the Muslim world to allow Christians freedom of religious expression and the right to build churches in Islamic lands. Minorities in majority Muslim nations have basic human rights too and should be afforded religious freedoms like the rest.

"I think the best index of the success of the trip is that it provoked a response from Al Qaeda," said Rev. John Wauck, a professor at the Santa Croce Pontifical University in Rome. "That means it bothered them."

A message from Al Qaeda denouncing the pope's visit as a "crusader campaign" against Islam and an attempt to "extinguish the burning ember of Islam" in Turkey appeared on several militant Islamic Web sites.

"Al Qaeda doesn't want to see reconciliation. They want to see inter-religious conflict," Wauck said. "Their response showed that whatever the pope is doing, it's working."

The moment that defined the pope's message was the simple act of standing side-by-side in prayer with the grand mufti of Istanbul, a moment that was replayed on evening news broadcasts and front pages around the world.

"The image you're left with is that the pope is not hostile to Muslims. It made clear that whatever disagreements he may have theologically and intellectually with Islam, he is not anti-Muslim," Wauck said.

The pope's approach to a dialogue with Islam has been carefully calculated, according to George Weigel, a Catholic commentator and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.

"The pope knew exactly what he was doing [in his Regensburg lecture]," Weigel said. "He decided that it was time to put a challenge to the Islamic world that only he, as pope, could put."

"The congenial pope," declared an editorial in Hurriyet, one of Turkey's leading newspapers. The rest of the Turkish media have been similarly charmed.

"He came here with a lot of baggage, and I didn't know whether he would be able to overcome that," said Binnaz Toprak, a political scientist at Istanbul's Bogazici University.

"But in the end the pope presented himself not only as a religious leader, but also a diplomat," Toprak said. "The Turkish public will be pleased that we made a nice show of Islamic tolerance and Turkish hospitality, and [the pope] gave an image to the world that he is in favor of dialogue."

And so too should the rest of the world be in favor of religious dialogue. Though we may have our religious differences, certainly there is room for tolerance and dialogue. We can disagree without being disagreeable. Let us love one another and learn to live together peaceably despite our differences.

Keep listening Al Qaeda! You just might learn something about the unconditional love of God, heart of the Father in heaven, and how to build bridges with humanity on earth. God is not a killer; He's a life giver.