As the Pope is greeted with protests in Turkey, there are signs of hope for interfaith understanding in this article on Muslims students at the Vatican’s Gregorian Pontifical University

Ozbek, 25, is now one of several Muslim students ensconced in the Vatican’s system of higher learning in and around the Italian capital. They attend pontifical universities, schools sanctioned by the Vatican, taking lessons from nuns and priests and sitting in classrooms decorated with crucifixes, in buildings adorned with larger-than-life statues and symbols of papal power.

Officially, the Muslim students attend the Jesuit-run Gregorian Pontifical University and other Vatican schools to learn about Christianity. In reality, they have become mediators navigating the suddenly very tricky world of interfaith dialogue and understanding.

Some are meeting Christians for the first time, and they are often the first Muslims their Christian classmates have encountered. Several said they wanted to correct Western misconceptions about Islam.

These guys are also pretty adroit cultural diplomats:

After the pope’s Regensburg speech, Sillah said, he was bombarded with e-mails and questions from fellow students. He told them that a religion of violence and evil “is not the Islam that I follow.”

His goal, he said, is to show Christians in Rome “by our actions” a different kind of Islam.

But he doesn’t mind the endless queries. “That’s our goal — that’s dialogue,” he said.

A hopeful sign for Western understanding of Islam, in a follow-up to this post from several months ago. And remember, relations have been worse.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « 100 Dollar Laptop and 200 Dollar Computer
• » Pope Benedict blesses Turkey’s EU Bid