***update: an “apology”…but of course it’s never enough…check out the latest news and photos here…***

My friend Lorenzo Vidino, counterterrorism expert and author of al Qaeda in Europe, sent the above photo and this note:

Attached is a picture of the Pope that is circulating in Qaeda-friendly chat rooms and websites. Lovely (and predictable) that they call for his beheading.

The script in red calls for the Pope’s beheading. The rest of the translation:

“Swine and servant of the cross, worships a monkey on a cross, hateful evil man, stoned Satan, may Allah curse him, blood-sucking vampire.”

Will the dhimmis at the New York Times have anything to say about it?

Of course not.

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Germany’s Angela Merkel has stood up to support the Pope against the hate-filled, threat-implying jihadists.

What about the men of the West? Where are they? Hello, President Bush?

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Here’s Stephen Bainbridge’s take on the Pope’s speech. Lawrence Auster’s is here. Paul Cella weighs in here. And commenter Dan McLaughlin at Red State sums it up:

Frankly, if it is controversial for the Pope to speak negatively about another faith, we’re in trouble. As a matter of earthly politics, we expect our religious leaders to espouse tolerance; as a political strategy, it is sometimes prudent for people of many faiths to form alliances within free societies against secularists. But as a matter of propagating the faith – the first duty of the clergy – of course, the Pope is entitled to explain why another faith is false prophecy and leads to ill.

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Meanwhile, reporters bend over backwards to downplay any possibility that practitioners of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage had anything to do with yesterday’s church bombings in Gaza:

A small explosion caused minor damage Friday in a courtyard outside a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, church workers said. The early morning blast appeared to have been caused by a small, homemade explosive device, which damaged a door and caused minor damage to the floor and walls, church workers said. No one was wounded.

A second explosion hit the church hours later and a concussion grenade was thrown near the church in the afternoon. Neither of those blasts caused any damage, but church officials worried that the attacks were retaliation for remarks that Pope Benedict XVI made Tuesday that angered Muslims.

“This is the first time this has ever happened to our church,” said the church’s priest, Rev. Artinious Alexious. “We don’t know why they have done this. We are Greek Orthodox and have no relation to the Pope.”

More church bombings today by “unknown” assailants for “unknown” reasons:

Unknown assailants threw fire bombs on Saturday at two churches in the West Bank city of Nablus, following a day of Palestinian protests against comments Pope Benedict made about Islam. No one was hurt.

Jabi Saadeh, a member of the Anglican Church in the city, said about four or five masked men in a white car threw several fire bombs at the wall of the church, without causing damage.

A similar attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Nablus set ablaze one of its walls, leaving part of it charred. George Awad, head of the Greek Orthodox church, denounced what he called “a childish act”.

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LGF gives the clueless MSM a clue.

And remember that “Mr Pope Be With In Your Limits Banner?” Robert Spencer explains what it means:

What limits? Classic Islamic law stipulates that Christians may live in peace in Islamic societies as long as they accept second-class status as dhimmis, which involves living within certain limits: not holding authority over Muslims, paying the jizya tax, not building new churches or repairing old ones, and…not insulting Allah or Muhammad. If they believe that a Christian has insulted them in some way, even inadvertently, his contract of protection — dhimma — is voided.

So are these protestors warning the Pope to behave like a dhimmi, or else? I expect so. After all, so many Christians and post-Christians in the West in recent years have been willing, even eager, to accept such limits — witness the chastened reaction to the Cartoon Rage riots, in which Church officials, government leaders, and others solemnly pontificated against “insults to religious figures.” But it wasn’t really a question of blasphemy then, and it isn’t a question of insult now. It is a question of whether non-Muslims will submit to Muslim standards and restrictions on their speech, thought, and behavior.

And I hope that the Pope, for one, is not willing to do so.