Pope Benedict XVI and Islam

The pope clearly stated that his primary purpose was to discuss the "issue of 'faith and reason.'" He did so reacting and respending to a major concern of his, the excesses of secularization: the triumph of secularism and increased weakness of Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church in his homeland, Germany, and in Europe in general, and attempts to exclude religion from the realm of reason. Equally problematic is the pope's statement that the Qur'anic passage, "There is no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256) was revealed in the early years of Muhammad's prophethood in Mecca, a period "when Mohammed was still powerless and under [threat]" but was overtaken later when he ruled Medina by "instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran [Qur'an], concerning holy war."