MSNBC tells us that the Islamic street is still seething at the pope, in an interview with foreign correspondent Keith Miller. (Hat tip: Tommy.)

So does this all come down to just that — a difference of perception?

There is a huge gulf of understanding. From the Vatican’s perspective, the pope was talking about the need to distance religion from violence — even though perhaps in an undiplomatic way. Yet the response has been more violence, which seems to reaffirm the point the pope was making.

It is similar to the cartoon controversy, in which dozens of people died in the violence that resulted from that dispute. There is a very low tolerance level to perceived outside attacks on Islam.

Unfortunately the war on terror has taken on, at least in the Islamic world, a veneer of being an attack on the Islamic religion and way of life. Many people in the Muslim world feel that they are personally under attack, even if they reject the ideology of fanaticism, jihadism and terrorism.

Add to that the fact that in a lot of Islamic countries, the ability to speak freely on a multitude of subjects is highly restricted. In the West we are very familiar with free speech and have developed over the years an ability to take criticism that may actually be hurtful to us because we understand people’s right to express themselves.

That doesn’t work in this part of the world because the ability to speak freely often is very, very restricted. So, it is very unusual to hear criticism of governments, political leaders, religious leaders. You don’t see a lot of critical debate in these societies. Subsequently when an offending remark surfaces, you get what appears to us in the West as an overreaction.

In case you missed MSNBC’s point with this piece, the sidebar to the article features a video clip of radical Islamist front man Tariq Ramadan, denied entry to the US for numerous connections to terrorism yet identified by MSNBC as a “moderate,” preaching about dialog and building bridges, and giving the most convoluted explanation I’ve ever heard for why jihad does not mean “holy war.”

Bridging the gap
Sept. 26: Tariq Ramadan, a moderate Muslim scholar, discusses how Islam and Christianity can bridge the widening gap between them.