In what could only be described as a depressingly predictable escalation, Somalian Islamists shot an elderly Catholic nun in the back three times, killing the woman who had served as a nurse to Mogadishu's poverty-stricken people. It came as Pope Benedict XVI offered an apology for using inflammatory language while Muslim activists and leaders around the world proclaimed it insufficient:

An Italian nun was shot dead at a hospital by Somali gunmen Sunday, hours after a leading Muslim cleric condemned Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence.

The nun, who was not immediately identified, was shot in the back at S.O.S. Hospital in northern Mogadishu by two gunmen, said Mohamed Yusuf, a doctor at the facility, which serves mothers and children. The nun's bodyguard and a hospital worker were also killed, doctors said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and it was not clear if it was directly linked to the pope's comments. Two people had been arrested, said Yusuf Mohamed Siad, head of security for the Islamic militia that controls Mogadishu.

Earlier Sunday, a Somali cleric criticized the comments the pope made in a speech last week for offending Muslims. The pope had cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, as "evil and inhuman."

News agencies around the world have tripped over themselves to emphasize that any connection between this cowardly murder by so-called men and the lunatic anger gripping Muslim hordes around the world over one sentence in a speech given earlier this week is somehow "unclear". Well, let's see ... what would an old nun, serving as a nurse in Mogadishu, have done to get shot in the back three times? And besides, even if they were unconnected, why have we not seen the level of rage and rhetorical anger coming from these same Muslim leaders over her death -- which after all, is somewhat less ephemeral than a speech referencing a dialogue from 600 years ago?

Benedict's apology hasn't managed to quell that rage, either. After issuing his second apology in three days for upsetting Muslims who apparently can't read, they continue to demand a more clear submission to their rage:

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that didn't reflect his personal opinion.

"These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought," Benedict told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome. ...

"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope said Sunday.

How did that go over? The former leader of Cairo's most influential mosque retorted that "It is not enough. He should apologize because he insulted the beliefs of Islam. He must apologize in a frank way and say he made a mistake." A Saudi professor told his television audience that Benedict "is evading apology" and refuses to admit he was wrong. The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, advised Muslims to keep up their rage for only a limited time, because "many Europeans are not following (the church) so what he said won't influence them."

What should influence Europeans and the West is this repetition of the Prophet Cartoons ugliness all over again. The Muslims are not interested in a Socratic dialogue, such as the kind proposed by Benedict in his speech, if one actually bothered to read it. They completely reject any notion of critical thinking when it comes to their doctrines, their laws, and their beliefs. They can make all the comments they want about Jews being descended from pigs and monkeys and the "polytheism" of Christians, but if anyone utters a word of scholarly criticism about Islam, the murders begin until someone admits that Islam is better than any other faith.

This drips with irony -- because Benedict spoke about precisely this impulse in his speech. It's conversion or submission by the sword all over again.

The West has to determine when they will quit enabling this impulse among the barbarians of the Middle East, and I use that term deliberately. This goes far beyond the idea of a lunatic fringe; it is representative of at least a significant part of the Islamic culture around the world, as any cursory glance at their media will demonstrate. This second outrage reminds me once again of the escalating series of terrorist attacks on American assets in the 1990s. The Islamic world is telling us once again that they consider themselves at war with the West, and as with the Prophet Cartoons, it's not just a handful of terrorists . We're simply refusing to recognize the declaration of war. Instead, we're offering apologies that would satisfy Western rhetoricists while the Muslims specifically reject reason in its entirety.

We're not even talking the same language, and we're not recognizing the threat to our civilization. These people want to silence us, and they will use murder and terrorism to do so. It's not about oil; what oil does the Vatican buy and pump in the Midde East? It's about supremacy and Islamic triumphalism. Either we win this struggle or we lose it, but we cannot escape it. Muslim leaders around the world will not allow us to remain on the fence between freedom and the submission of dhimmitude.

UPDATE: Keep an eye on Michelle Malkin for updates to this story. Unfortunately, there will be many more over the next few days, and no one will cover it like Michelle.

UPDATE II: Dafydd has late-breaking updates of Muslims speaking out against the irrational rage and hatred. Funny, but we've heard the same exact responses after other examples of Muslim outrage.

UPDATE III: I forgot to hat-tip CQ reader/commenter Keemo for some of the links. Keemo's been around since the beginning of the blog, I believe.

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