Islamist ideology = kill the Christians

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, is seen here comforting some of the Iraqi Christians who survived the tragic and disgraceful Hallowe'en Massacre perpetrated by Muslim militants at the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad.

This past Sunday, at the Angelus, the Holy Father prayed for the victims of the "continual attacks that are taking place in Iraq against Christians and Muslims." Then and previously he cited other "situations of violence, of intolerance, of suffering...in the world." But the insistent reference to Iraq seemed to express unusual concern.

The October 31 attack was deliberately planned for a time when hundreds would be hearing Mass. 58 Catholic faithful were butchered and scores wounded, in what can only be seen as a revelation of the true intention of the Islamist radicals.

The attackers were wearing explosive belts. They opened fire and threw grenades shouting, "You will all go to hell, but we to paradise. Allah is most great." The attack lasted five hours! In that time, the terrorists stopped killing twice to pray to Allah, and all the while recited the Qur'an as if in a mosque.

They devastated the altar, used the crucifix for target practice, and terrorized even small children simply because they were "infidels".

Here we see confirmed the widely-held Muslim belief that violence against "the infidel" is something intrinsic to Islam, not a distortion of it. This is the idea that was at the centre of the Pope's lecture in Regensburg, for which he was widely condemned as "racist" and "intolerant".

What the Holy Father was saying, though, is that this idea of "jihad against the infidels"and that pope Ratzinger maintains can be reversed only with a "revolution of enlightenment" on the part of Islam itself.

What are the chances of such enlightenment? Don't hold your breath while waiting. In Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq the killing of Christians just because they are Christians goes on, with western nations turning blind eyes and deaf ears.

Just two days ago, a married couple were attacked murdered in their own home. And the exodus of Christians from the Middle East continues.