The Pope and Islam

The Pope of the Vatican mentioned Islam in a speech few weeks ago that basically blasted the religion. Muslims around the world protested and continue to protest as of now. The pope said that he felt sorry for the reaction that these remarks caused and then offered his apology for hurting the feelings of the Muslims but stopped short from apologizing completely for the remarks he made. The big question is why would the head of the Christian Catholic Church blasts a religion that has over one and a half billion followers. Why now and for what purpose. The pope and the church are not dumb and obviously the pope wanted to send a message to the world that in his opinion, although he was quoting, that Islam was built on wars and that it is not a religion of peace. Every one is entitled to his opinion but not the pope! Unless he believes in what he said and then he should not apologize but again he should be upfront about it. If the pope blasted any other religion the reaction should be the same, which is to protest. Religions are words in books that the believers believe that they are words of God. Behaviors are different; they are acts of humans that belong to this sect or religion. If individuals that belong to a certain religion attack and terrorize then the job would be to fight those and not their religion. I'm talking here especially about the three divine religions which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Of course we can include religions that have millions of followers as well. The pope made a mistake when he attacked a religion rather that attacking methods used by humans that claim to belong to this religion or that. As an individual the pope is entitled to his opinions, as a Pope, unless he wants to send a message that he believes that Islam is a religion of war, then he should not mention such things or attack any other religions, The message of the legitimate religious leaders like the pops is to spread understating and not vice versa.