Pope's Comments

Alright, so I'm thinking I'm going to turn this blog a little bit more political and I'm looking for a lot of feedback from you guys out there, so let me know what you think. I'm always game for a debate.
Might as well start off with a real kicker: the Pope's comments about Islam. Personally I don't find anything overly offensive in his comments. For reference, his full speech can be found here:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14848884/

I agree that there are branches of Islam in the present day that do not "spread the word by the sword", however there are undoubtedly branches that do. To verify this, one only has to look at the threats in response to the Pope's comments, such as:
"We shall break the cross and spill the wine. ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome. ... God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," (ref: http://kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5421604 )
Furthermore, comparisons to Hitler are totally unjustified. This has nothing to do with the superiority of one race to another considering neither Christianity nor Islam (in my understanding) are confined to a race. If anything it is the opposite, showing the rascism of the people who made the comparisons in their continued prejudice of Germans.
Perhaps the most ironic statement I have read so far is the reaction of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5356820.stm It is pure rhetorical BS that he would consider what the Pope said to be a call to a crusade. Very, very clearly the Pope is saying that violence is not the answer and that religion above all must turn from violence and use reason. Khamenei distortion of the Pope's words for his own political purposes is made clear a little later when he mentions George Bush and the (impending) conflict between Iran and the US.
In addition to threats, does anyone else find the physical reaction even a little bit ironic? I mean the Pope uses an ancient quote that says that Islam is violent and in response five churches are firebombed, and a nun shot four times in the back.
In conclusion, I think that, for the purpose of political niceties, the Pope ought to use a bit more discretion in writing his next speech. I also think it was very honourable of him to apologize. However, I have trouble disagreeing with his comments (for at least a portion of the population) given the violent reaction that ensued.
Comments please!