Our God is a loving God who created us to enjoy the beauty of His creation, to love Him and to love one another. Violence by its definition is contrary to both reason and the nature of God, as Pope Benedict said. If you are in any way promoting a culture of death, you are promoting a culture that is anti-God by definition. God is the giver of life.

If you really seek God, you will find Him. And if you really seek to serve Him, you will spread His life. Do not be taken in by false ideologies, which are sometimes marketed in the name of religion. What brings us the 9/11s and the other violent acts of this world is fascism under the guise of Islam. It is evil. Renounce it and flee from it.

And to the Islamic extremists, I would make a special appeal. Martin Luther King said it best: “He whom you would change you must first love.” Learn to love our God who is a God of love and you will be freed from the shackles that bind you.

I cannot speak for Islam, but I can speak for Christianity. Extremism which leads to violence is contrary to the very nature of the God whom we worship. He and the tradition which has arisen from His teachings countenance violence only as in the Just War tradition when it is in protection of innocent life, a proportionate response to evil; or when it is necessary to enforce the law and to administer justice.

There is no excuse, ever, for religious extremism of the kind we are witnessing in the world today. For those times in the past when Christians have engaged in unwarranted, violent activity we must repent, as John Paul II called the Church to do in the millennium year. Christians ought to be extreme, that is, committed to the fullest in loving God and spreading His love abroad.