While Pope Benedict XVI's expression of sorrow and regret seems to have placated Muslims in some, though not all parts of the world, a very disturbing cartoon about him has entered the Muslim world in the Middle East.
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network that is watched by Muslims in many countries, has carried the animated sequence under the title Era of the New Vatican on the homepage of its website.
The drawings by Pakistani satirist Shujaat Ali begin with Pope John Paul II releasing white doves from a cardboard box marked "religious harmony." In the next set of frames, Pope Benedict XVI, with St. Peter's Basilica in the background, shoots the doves down with a double-barreled shotgun. The final frames, also with St. Peter's in the background, show three blood-spattered birds on the ground at the feet of John Paul II, now sitting in a chair grasping his pastoral staff. With a look of dismay, he raises his hand to his forehead, while Pope Benedict stands beside him, one hand propped on the gun and the other on his hip, looking out at the viewer.
The message is crystal-clear: John Paul II was a man of peace; Benedict XVI is a killer of peace. Sadly, the image risks entering the popular imagination of many Muslims and remaining there.
The cartoon comes at a time when many in Rome and elsewhere in the Catholic world are struggling to understand how this whole controversy could ever have happened, aft
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