Yes, it's over the top. But as that Financial Times journalist whose piece Jerome wrote about yesterday wrote, "An editor of The Economist in the 1950s once advised his journalists to "simplify, then exaggerate". A woman wearing a headscarf in a European society probably doesn't consciously want to destroy that society. But I do think that many Europeans do feel that a Muslim's wearing a headscarf is an explicit rejection of core European values. And that's why they get banned.

I don't think the "we're all slaves" part is an exaggeration, however. And I do think that this is how someone raised in the Christian tradition should perceive Islam.

If I were discussing this with a MUslim, I would of course omit the enslavement part, and leave it as Pope Benedict put it. Another point on which I disagree with Pope Benedict, by the way, is his "argument" that Islam is more violent than Christianity. Present events show the absurdity of that. Perhaps Christianity properly understood is inherently more peaceful than Islam, but how often do nations properly understand Christianity?

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns