September 12th 2006 The most controversial moment in the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI- his Regensburg Lecture 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached' Only a year and a half into his papacy, the brilliant and gentle German academic turned Pope gave a speech that caused uproar in the Islamic world, sparking violent and fatal protests. It gave many of his critics justification that he was indeed deserving of the name 'God's Rotweiller'. To his supporters, the hysterical reaction was that of a world which was incapable of engaging in civil debate about important matters. In a talk entitled 'Faith, Reason and the University – Memories and Reflections', Benedict expanded on the relationship between faith and reason. He quoted Byzantine Emperor Manuel II from a dialogue with a Persian, in which he had criticised forced conversion in Islam. Although the pope specifically said that he had quoted the passage for the purpose of the discussion, the reaction, ironically, was violence and fury across the Muslim world. The story took two days to cause controversy, a news report on the 13th hailed his speech and the 230,000 who attended his open air Mass. By the time the Islamic world started reporting the story on 14th September, all hell broke loose. A 60 year old nun was shot dead by a Muslim in Somalia. Two churches were set on fire in the West Bank. A Somalian cleric called for Benedict to be killed. The Western Media revelled in a faux pas from the man they feared most in the world, due to his intellect and decorum. Journalist William Scholes declared 'The honeymoon is well and truly over' adding that it was 'the sort of reaction many said was inevitable when the former Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pontiff'. Benedict apologised and repeated that the words were not his own, he had quoted them in an academic forum. The reaction was in part so forceful because of sustained anger in the Islamic world over the wars taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan, but more acutely because of the recent memory of riots over cartoons of Muhammad, which had led to 200 people killed in Nigeria alone and violence elsewhere. In India, the Muslim League staged the most widely broadcast protests, the source for the image below. On the 20th of September, Benedict gave his weekly audience and stated 'In no way did I wish to make my own the words of the Medieval Emperor. I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason go together' The Evening Herald reported that he was being protected by a 'Ring of Steel' as 'security was stepped up in the Vatican after the Pope's controversial remarks' Some of the voices who defended Benedict are hard to imagine today. CDU general secretary , Ronald Pofalla, said 'All those who attack the Pope are not interested in dialogue. They merely want to intimidate and silence the West'. Angela Merkel said that the pope had been 'misunderstood'. Irish Bishop Anthony Flynn said that 'Muslims appear very sensitive about issues when it suits them' Muslim leaders were universally critical, though at different levels. The Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland, through its Islamic Cultural Centre, complained that Irish people do not do enough to understand Islam, which at that time had 25,000 adherents in Ireland. In November, the pope visited Turkey, attending the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and even turning to Mecca as he prayed. When asked about the issue in 2010 by Peter Seewald, Benedict brought up relativism and atheism: "Today we are living in a completely different world, in which the battle lines are drawn differently. In this world, radical secularism stands on one side, and the question of God, in its various forms, stands on the other" This was the biggest story in the world for half a year and its 20th anniversary has barely been mentioned.