What is it about Islam? (UPDATED)

Pope Benedict XVI presents a theological lecture in which he quotes a 14th century text that describes Islam as "evil and inhuman."

So how do Muslims react?

Just like they did during the Muhammed cartoon controversy earlier this year:

With threats that suggest that Islam is, well, "evil and inhuman."

Through his secretary of state, Pope Benedict this morning apologized if Muslims were offended by his lecture.

But as Andrew Sullivan explains in a continuing analysis of the pope's speech, that doesn't mean Benedict was wrong about Islam and its teachings about violence.

Whether the pope was right or wrong, I don't know. He's the theological scholar.

But as with the cartoon controversy, I'm wondering again what it is about Islam that seems to generate such a fury every time there's even a whiff of someone taking a critical look at the precepts of the faith. That we are in a time during which people are killing others, and themselves, in the name of Allah, demands that there be such analyses, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

No one, not even the pope, should denigrate someone else's religious faith.

UPDATED, 9:09 a.m., Sept. 17, 2006

Pope Benedict this morning said he was deeply sorry" for offending Muslims.

Of course, some Muslims aren't buying it.

And many more Muslims aren't apologizing for how they responded to the pope's comments.

However, with their furor, aren't Muslims again doing just that with Islam?