Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg lecture, delivered on 12 September 2006, in which criticisms of Islam were made, had repercussions in Gaza where, as elsewhere, its diffusion gave rise to expressions of hostility from the pulpits of some mosques. Musallam managed to gain guarantees from the Mufti of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, Fatah and the Hamas-run Gaza branch of the Interior Minister to smooth over misunderstandings, and police guards were dispatched to watch over Christian institutions.