the latter’s courts, Muslim clerics regularly accosted Manuel about his Christian faith; he boldly responded in like manner, at one point arguing: “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.”† (When, in 2006, Pope Benedict quoted this assertion in the context of Manuel’s greater point, that “to act unreasonably is foreign to God,” anti-Christian riots erupted around the Muslim world, churches were burned, and an Italian nun who had devoted her life to serving the sick
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