James Taranto, the author of the indispensible "Best of the Web Today," in an item entitled: "Will the Saudis Conquer Rome?" refers to a Web article translated by the also-indispensible Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The Middle East Media Research Institute translates a Web article by Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-Arifi, imam of the mosque at Saudi Arabia's King Fahd Defense Academy:

We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians, who carve crosses on the breasts of the Muslims in Kosovo--and before then in Bosnia, and before then in many places in the world--will yet pay us the Jiziya [poll tax paid by non-Muslims under Muslim rule], in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam.

OK, this is silly. Rome is not about to fall to the Wahhabis. But how come when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson say foolish things about Islam, Third World Muslims go on murder sprees and all right-thinking Westerners condemn them, while Muslim clerics are able to say stuff like this without anyone batting an eye?

Are what Falwell and Robertson saying about Islam really "foolish" considering these very sorts of things that Taranto is pointing out? Falwell and Robertson say Islam is a religion of violence, not peace, then to publicizes a bit of rhetoric that would seem to support their point -- and chides Falwell and Robertson.