Sandro Magister reprints commentaries on the Regensburg lecture from two Muslim scholars, one supportive of Benedict’s point, and the other not so.

Nayed reproves Benedict XVI for, among other things, trusting experts on Islam who are “hostile” toward this religion. And among these he cites Jesuit fathers Christian Troll and Samir Khalil Samir, whom the pope called to introduce the study seminar with his former students at Castel Gandolfo in September of 2005, on the concept of God in Islam.

Rather than from them, Nayed suggests that Benedict XVI seek insight from “Catholic orientalists” he sees as better disposed toward Islam, such as Maurice Borrmans, Michel Lagarde, Etienne Renault, Thomas Michel, and also the Arab Christians Michel Sabbah, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Georges Khodr.

Nayed laments, moreover, that Benedict XVI removed archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald from the presidency of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue.

But Nayed directs his most radical criticisms – theological, philosophical, and historical – against Benedict XVI where he analyzes, point by point, the lecture in Regensburg beginning with the citation pope made of a medieval text by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus.

It is from this point that the lengthy extract from Nayed’s essay, reproduced below, begins