The One-Man Crusade

Jim Geraghty makes an interesting observation:

I see al-Qaeda reportedly issued a statement accusing Benedict XVI of a "crusader campaign" to "extinguish the burning ember of Islam" in Turkey.
I realize fact-checking an al-Qaeda statement is like looking for straight lines in a Jackson Pollack painting, but I think that line reveals something about the bad guys' inverted relationship with reality. Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, and yet al-Qaeda sees it as "a burning ember" at risk of being extinguished. Apparently, a visit from the Pope is somehow going to flip the country to Catholicism or something.

I think this illustrates a) to al-Qaeda, Turkish Muslims aren't "authentic" Muslims or perhaps b) a quiet, fearful recognition on the part of al-Qaeda that their interpretation of Islam isn't "selling" all that well. If you've got the one true faith, the revealed word of God, and it's self-evident, why worry about the Pope coming and visiting? What's he going to say that can sway your fellow devoted followers?