Muslim leaders today are yet again angry, this time over a speech made by Pope Benedict on Tuesday that address the issue of Islam and the West:

Pope Benedict XVI weighed in Tuesday on the delicate issue of rapport between Islam and jihad: He said that violence, embodied in the Muslim idea of jihad, or holy war, is contrary to reason and God’s plan, while the West was so beholden to reason that Islam could not understand it.

Muslim anger, which these days seems perpetual, has increasingly grown since the Pope's remarks of Tuesday.

Catholic leaders are defending the Pope's remarks:

"Benedict has made clear in his first Encylical 'Deus Caritas Est' that Christianity as he sees it is based on love for all humanity, whatever religion."

She said the Pope understood the difference between "the greater and lesser jihad" and the lecture was not intended to be a "comprehensive study".

"He knows very well the difference between the greater and the lesser jihad and the conditions in which violence is permitted in Islam - defence of the person, property and faith.

"It should be pointed out that the intent of Pope Benedict XVI's lecture was not to undertake a comprehensive study for the jihad, but simply to illustrate a point on the relationship between 'faith and reason'," she said.

The Pope's speech quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam. "The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said.

"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed 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'." The Pope described the phrases on Islam as "brusque", while neither explicitly agreeing with nor repudiating them. But British Muslims reacted angrily, accusing him of falling into "the trap of bigots and racists".

This Muslim outrage and anger is nothing new. It seems that every day brings a new outrage, or a new call for jihad from one Muslim leader or another. This "outrage" about the Pope's remarks is just the latest example. Outrage, fury, and an almost violent sense of victimhood unfortunately seems more the norm amongst Muslim leaders today than the exception.

Go read the Pope's speech here and decide for yourself whether Muslim leaders are justified or not in their apoplectic fury.