Christian Terrorist Hijacks Plane

Hakan Ekinci, a Christian convert and deserter from the Turkish army, motivated by Pope's anti-Islamic speech, hijacked a Boeing 737 flying out of Tirana, Albania to Istanbul, Turkey. In a letter to the Pope on 30 August 2006, he had declared "I am a Christian and I don't want to serve in a Muslim army," although Turkey is a secular state ruled by a notoriously anti-Islamic military junta, so clearly the army is not Muslim.

The Pope's defamation of Islam was obviously going to lead to greater political tension between Christians and Muslims, thus it was entirely foreseeable that his words would be interpreted as an endorsement of political violence against Islam.

It will be interesting to see what the Pope's reaction will be.