I don't buy it simply because even the context is a crude reduction which absolutely has no logic and reason behind it (which I guess is the point). So Paleologos erred in his thinking about Muhammad because he was using reason? Was that the argument? It just doesn't make sense.

That would be like blaming the crusades and the holocaust solely on Christian theology (emphasis on the "solely").

A century later the last Byzantine emperor uttered these words, "Better the Sultan's turban than the Pope's tiara." And thus the Ottoman Empire was born.

I wonder how Benedict would explain the crusades?