Posted on 09/18/2006 8:23:58 AM PDT by Borges
Al Qaeda militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope Benedict's comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried to calm passions.
The statement by an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al Qaeda came after the Pontiff said on Sunday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war.
"We tell the worshipper of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said a Web statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council.
"We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the statement, posted on Sunday on an Internet site often used by al Qaeda and other militant groups.
In Iraq's southern city of Basra, up to 150 demonstrators chanted slogans and burned a white effigy of the Pope.
"No to aggression!," "We gagged the Pope!," they chanted in front of the governor's office in the Shi'ite city. The protesters also burned German, U.S., and Israeli flags.
A speech by Pope Benedict last Tuesday was seen as portraying Islam as a religion tainted by violence, causing dismay among Muslim states where some religious leaders called it the start of a new Christian crusade against Islam.
The Vatican has instructed its envoys in Muslim countries to explain Pope Benedict's words on Islam.
Benedict's new Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the Holy See's nuncios (ambassadors) in Muslim countries would be visiting government and religious leaders.
French President Jacques Chirac refused on Monday to criticize the 79-year-old Pontiff, but called for a more diplomatic use of language.
"It is not my role or my intention to comment on the Pope's statements. I simply want to say, on a general level ... that we must avoid anything that excites tensions between peoples or between religions," Chirac said on Europe 1 radio.
"We must avoid making any link between Islam, which is a great, respected and respectable religion, and radical Islamism, which is a totally different activity and one of a political nature," Chirac added.
ARCHBISHOP DEFENDS POPE
The head of the world's Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, defended Benedict.
"The Pope has already issued an apology and I think his views on this need to be judged against his entire record, where he has spoken very positively about dialogue," said Williams, the spiritual leader of 77 million Anglicans worldwide.
Williams told the BBC that all faiths could be distorted, and the Pope was simply giving an example of that.
"There are elements in Islam that can be used to justify violence, just as there are in Christianity and Judaism."
In Iran, a government spokesman said on Monday Pope Benedict's regret was a "good gesture" but not enough.
The Pope had referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the Prophet brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Questions had been raised on whether a papal visit to Turkey in November could go ahead, but the government, while calling his remarks "ugly," said there were no plans to call it off.
The Pope, head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, said the quotation did not represent his personal views, but failed to satisfy some Islamic groups seeking a full apology.
In Somalia, an Italian nun was killed on Sunday in an attack one Islamist source said could be linked to the dispute. A Vatican spokesman hoped the killing was "an isolated event."
A senior Chinese Muslim expressed anger over the Pope's comments, Xinhua news agency said on Monday. This was in contrast to Chinese reticence over last year's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish paper that sparked violent Muslim protests elsewhere in the world.
"In his speech, Benedict insulted both Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. This has gravely hurt the feelings of the Muslims across the world, including those from China," Xinhua quoted Chen Guangyuan, president of the Islamic Association of China, as saying.
China insists its Catholics belong to a state-backed church that does not recognize the Pope's authority. Muslims are also under state control.
About 100 Indonesian Muslims protested peacefully over the Pope's remarks outside the Vatican embassy in Jakarta on Monday.
Silly. The Crusades were defensive wars.>>>>>>>
Thank you so much for stating the truth here about the crusades. I am proud of the crusades. My children's Catholic high school moniker is the Crusaders. No fear here, nothing to apologize for or feel bad about. I think some confuse the crusades with the inquisition.
You sound just like rosie fatass b!tch o'd!ckhead and her "radical Christianity is as bad as radical islam".
satan and evil exists whether you believe in them or not... they believe in you!
LLS
ROTFLMAO!
What a total waste of bandwidth.
You are exactly right. The bible is a waste of (you fill in the blank).
You are a troll.
That was not necessary, doc.
This person may be new here, but he looks seasoned in Internet wars to me. Not the kind of person who will forget a comment like yours.
Need to keep a cool head, my friend, ok?
And God doesn't have to apologize to you for what is in its contents either. If you don't like what is in Sacred Scripture, tough!
It's not hard to spot those who attack religion without having really thought about what they are saying. They are an awful lot like mind-numbed robots.
Shalom.
I sincerely disagree. You have only one fact right: that it was Alexis Comnenus who requested the help. To call what the Turks were doing 'an incursion' is to say that sawing the head of a helpless captive is 'surgery'. Nice sugarcoating there, and clearly aid and comfort to enemies of the United States.
This kind of slanging is not constructive. If you have actual data to contribute which no one here might be aware of (which, at this late date, is highly improbable) then do that instead of hurling characterizations centuries old as verbal weapons.
Maybe you aren't as seasoned as I inferred.
Pope: "You know, you guys can be a little violent at times."
Muslims: "Nonsense, we're a religion of peace! We tell the worshipper of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said a Web statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council. We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit your throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen."
Things that make you go, "Hmmmm."
What we have here in Crippled Vulture and JerseyFreethinker are two atheists in need of repentance.
Since they have been so brutally honest with us, let's as Christians, be brutally honest with them. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, or suffer the consequences.
"Even in America the self-righteous moralistic Christians murdered thousands of witches in the name of religion."
Thousands, eh? Care to post some supporting documentation of that assertion?
Don't troll this news thread with your theological challenges.
I don't apologize for that either.
Fatima 1917 AD: "And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."
Excuse me???
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