World affairs, Barney-style

My mission in life is to simplify current events so that even children can understand them. Therefore, I have conveniently summarized the current uproar over the Pope's remarks about Islam.

The Pope: Muslims should stop being so violent! They should coexist peacefully with the rest of the world, much like the Catholic Church has done for, oh, going on several years now.
Moderate Muslims: How can you so such things?! We are very angry about this. In fact, we are much more angry about this than we are about Muslims being violent.
Extremist Muslims: He called us violent! Let's retaliate by burning down a few churches and maybe murdering a nun!
The Pope: Okay! I apologize for upsetting you. I'm so very sorry that you got so angry about my remarks. I will never say anything like this again because we're kinda running short on nuns lately.

That's about as far as we've gotten so far, but I expect that the next move will be for Muslims to stick their tongues out and maybe give the Pope a wet willy.

There was a time in my life when I would have blamed all this silliness on religion and its ability to make grown men act like petulant children. As I've grown older and arguably wiser, it has become clear to me that grown men will act like petulant children for any number of reasons, and if you take away their religions they will surely find another excuse to yell at each other and set fire to buildings.