Posted on 09/15/2006 3:29:49 PM PDT by SJackson
Pope’s attack on Islam sparks anger
Agencies
Pope Benedict XVI did not intend to offend Muslim sensibilities with remarks about holy war, the Vatican said Thursday night, scrambling to defend the pontiff as anger built in the Islamic world over some of his remarks during his pilgrimage in Germany.
"It certainly wasn't the intention of the Pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad [holy war] and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers," Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who accompanied the pontiff on the trip, said in a statement after Benedict returned to Rome.
A few hours earlier, Turkey's top Islamic cleric asked Benedict to apologiSe about the remarks and unleashed a string of accusations against Christianity, raising tensions before the pontiff's planned visit to Turkey in November on what would be his first papal pilgrimage in a Muslim country.
Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Bardakoglu, a cleric who sets the religious agenda for Turkey, said he was deeply offended by remarks about Islamic holy war made Tuesday during the pilgrimage to the pontiff's homeland, and called the remarks "extraordinarily worrying, saddening and unfortunate." Bardakoglu said that "if the Pope was reflecting the spite, hatred and enmity" of others in the Christian world, then the situation was even worse. The Pope made his remarks on Islam in a speech in which he quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam. "The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said.
"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what [the Prophet] Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,"' he quoted the emperor as saying.
Clearly aware of the delicacy of the issue, Benedict added: "I quote," twice before pronouncing the phrases on Islam and described them as "brusque," while neither explicitly agreeing with nor repudiating them.
In Egypt, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, also called for an apology.
"The remarks do not express correct understanding of Islam and are merely wrong and distorted beliefs being repeated in the West," Akef said in a statement Thursday evening. Akef said he was "astonished that such remarks come from someone who sits on top of the Catholic Church which has its influence on the public opinion in the West."
The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference, based in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, said it regretted "the Pope's quote and for the other falsifications." Islamist websites also unleashed a scathing campaign against the Pope.
Lombardi insisted that the pontiff respects Islam.
Benedict wants to "cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue towards the other religions and cultures, obviously also towards Islam," Lombardi said in a statement released by the Vatican.
"It is opportune to note that that which is at the Pope's heart is a clear and radical refusal of the religious motivation of violence," Lombardi said.
"Proper consideration of the religious dimension is, in fact, an essential premise for a fruitful dialogue with the great cultures and religions of the world," Lombardi said.
While in Germany, Lombardi said that the pontiff had not given an interpretation of Islam as "something violent", although the spokesman said the religion contained both violent and non-violent strains.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Akef contended that the pope's remarks "threaten world peace" and "pour oil on the fire and ignite the wrath of the whole Islamic world to prove the claims of enmity of politicians and religious men in the West to whatever is Islamic". The Organisation of the Islamic Conference expressed hopes that "this sudden campaign does not reflect a new trend for the Vatican policy towards the Islamic religion."
In Cologne, Germany, last year he urged Islamic leaders to take responsibility for their communities and teach their young to abhor violence.
Although officially secular Turkey is 99 per cent Muslim, the main purpose of the pope's pilgrimage there is to meet with the spiritual leader of the world's 200 million Orthodox, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, whose headquarters, for historical reasons, are in Istanbul.
As recently as Saturday, while flying to Germany, the pope mentioned Turkey as one of his next pilgrimages abroad.
In Pakistan, Muslim scholars and religious leaders criticised Pope Benedict's remarks and urged him to play a positive role in bringing Islam and Christianity closer.
"It is very unfortunate that a religious leader of his stature is issuing statements which can fan religious disharmony," Khurshid Ahmed, head of the Institute of Policy Studies in Islamabad, told AFP.
"The Pope's attitude is very different from his predecessor. Instead of bringing Islam and Christianity closer, he is straining relations between the two religions," Ahmed said.
"In the present political atmosphere such views can be exploited by those who are trying to malign Muslims and Islam." "We expect the Pope to play a positive role in promoting relations between religions and civilisations." "The Pope's views about the role of Sharia and jihad are at variance with Muslim beliefs."
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior leader of the Jammiat Ulema-i-Islam Party and an MP, urged the Pope not to take inspiration from US President George W. Bush.
"The Pope is a respected personality not only for Christians but for Muslims also. He should not lower his stature by giving Bush-like statements," he told AFP.
"Jihad is a tool for defence and we expect the Pope to speak against aggression," he said.
"The Pope's statement is highly irresponsible," a senior Islamic scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamdi said.
"The concept of jihad is not to spread Islam with sword," Ghamdi said in a statement.
"The Pope's statement was an attempt to jeopardise a remarkable unity displayed by Christians and Muslims against recent Israeli aggression in Lebanon," Shahid Shamsi, spokesman for the main Jamaat-i-Islami Party said.
In Kuwait, two high-ranking Islamist officials Thursday called on Pope Benedict XVI to apologise for his remarks.
Haken Mutairi, secretary general of the emirate's Umma (Islamic Nation) party, urged the pope to to apologise immediately "to the Muslim world for his calumnies against the Prophet Mohammad and Islam".
Mutairi hit out at the Pope's "unaccustomed and unprecedented" remarks, and linked the Catholic Church leader's comments to "new Western wars currently under way in the Muslim world in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon."
The pope's statements amounted to "the pursuit of crusades," he added.
"I call on all Arab and Islamic states to recall their ambassadors from the Vatican and expel those from the Vatican until the Pope says he is sorry for the wrong done to the Prophet and to Islam, which preaches peace, tolerance, justice and equality," Mutairi told AFP.
He also urged Christian and Muslim religious leaders to "spread the values of tolerance and clemency preached by the prophets Jesus and Mohammad".
Sayed Baqer Mohri, head of the assembly of Shiite ulemas, or theologians, in Kuwait, labelled the Pope's comments "unrealistic and unjustified", and also called on him to apologise.
"His unjustified attack on Islam and the Prophet Mohammad clearly contradicts his call for dialogue between civilisations," Mohri said. "It opens the way to animosity between religions.
"We demand that the Pope make a public apology" to help bring an end to animosity, he added.
==================
Pope’s References to Islam Provoke Muslim Outcry Saeed Al-Abyad, Arab News
JEDDAH, 15 September 2006 — Muslim organizations and Islamic scholars from across the Arab world have criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s comments criticizing Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saying that such statements are reckless coming from a man who is supposed to be familiar with global religions.
The scholars have said that these comments will only serve to foment hatred between Muslims and Christians and widen the gap that already exists between people of the two religions and which many intellectuals from both sides are trying to bridge.
Muslim leaders say the 79-year-old pontiff launched a thinly veiled attack on Islam and the concept of holy war in a theological lecture to staff and students at the University of Regensburg in his native Bavaria in southern Germany on Tuesday.
Quoting a 14th-century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had brought the world “evil and inhuman” things, the pope said, “He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’”
The German pope was quoting from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
The sharp criticism from the Muslim world brought about a swift reaction from the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI respects Islam but rejects violence motivated by religion, his spokesman said.
Benedict seeks to “cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward other religions and cultures and obviously also toward Islam,” said Father Federico Lombardi in an official statement.
“It should be said that what is important to the pope is a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation of violence,” said Lombardi. “It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to do an in-depth study of jihad and Muslim thinking in this field and still less so to hurt the feelings of Muslim believers,” he added in the statement.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) — a body that includes Muslim scholars from across the Muslim world — condemned the pope’s statement.
Describing the pope to be “a man who is supposed to be familiar with all religions” the OIC, in a press statement, said such statements “increase hate between Muslim and Christian nations. It will also increase the gap between Muslims and Christians that many rational people from both sides are trying to bridge.”
The statement added that the OIC “regrets” the pope’s comments about the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saying that there was no “justification for such statements.”
“The OIC hopes that such surprising comments are not part of a new campaign against Islam by the Vatican, especially after decades of dialogue that brought scholars from the Muslims world together with scholars from the Vatican.”
Reacting to the comments, the Secretary-General of the International Islamic Media Organization Dr. Muhammad ibn Sibyan Al-Johani appealed to the pope not to “stoke the old embers of religious hatred and hostilities.”
“At a time when intellectuals the world over are striving to bridge the gulf between cultures and striving to steer the world away from extremist ideologies ... we are left shocked by a personality whom the whole world looks up to as the first person who would support the calls of sane people,” said Al-Johani.
The secretary-general called on the pope to apologize and asked, “Will such remarks serve Christian interests or will they widen the yawning gap between the Muslims and Christians, particularly Catholics?”
Al-Johani added that he found it strange that the pope was ignoring countless history books that referred to the equity and nobleness of Muslims and limited himself to quoting a Byzantine emperor. “The pope should realize that if we were to turn to the books of history to judge the issue then we would find the Catholic Church to be the biggest loser... It would only bring to surface the story of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition,” he said, adding, “It would be better for us to not refer to history. We should bury our old differences.”
Dr. Jameel H. Al-Lowahiq, professor of Shariah at the Taif University, said the remarks reveals “the enmity and grudge the new pope” harbors “toward Islam and our Prophet.”
“The lecture of the present pope, particularly at the time of deep international crisis, betrays the utter lack of prudence and propriety in sensing the consequences of making such a statement,” said Al-Lowahiq.
He added that that the pope was probably not aware of what the English philosopher Bernard Shaw said about the Prophet, in that the world badly needed a man like the Prophet Muhammad who placed his religion at an honorable position.
“I hope the pope will realize what Western and Christian historians wrote about Islam. The pope’s statement shows his and the entire Vatican’s weakness or rather nonexistent knowledge of Islam. It also reveals the psychological hatred the pope has of Islam and the Prophet,” added Al-Lowahiq.
“He should have more knowledge of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, he is quoting a Byzantine ruler and ignoring the writings of honest Christian researchers who speak with credibility,” he said.
Sheikh Muahmmad Al-Homaidi, judge at the Court of Grievances in Jeddah described the quotes as “baseless lies and fabrications about the Prophet, whose advent was a mercy to the entire world.”
“The motive behind the provocative statement from such a high personality, who is expected to take the initiative in dialogue between Christians and Muslims is difficult to understand,” Al-Homaidi said. The judge feared the remarks were an indication of the worsening relationship between different communities because of venomous statements that are more appropriate for the middle ages.
“Such statements will only provoke hatred between Islamic and Christian societies especially since we know that the Islamic world has not got over the cartoon fiasco. The pope should have taken a role in calming the situation and not provoke Muslims by saying that their Prophet brought evil. What are the motives behind these statements from a man who we hope would bring dialogue between Muslim and Christian nations and not the other way round,” he said.
“Such statements will just take us back to the middle ages. We Muslims are peaceful but we will not be quiet when provoked like this,” he said.
British expatriate Sohail Nakhooda, editor in chief of the Islamica Magazine in Amman and someone who has studied Christian theology at the Vatican and closely observed the Catholic Church from within, said he was “not at all surprised” at the comments.
“I don’t think he understands Islam or has the same concern to promote interfaith relations as did the late Pope John Paul II who took great steps in improving relations with Muslims. In the days when Pope Benedict was still known as Cardinal Ratzinger and as the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, he was well known for his theological conservatism and combative attitude to many contemporary issues the church faced,” said Nakhooda, adding that the current pope’s “antiquated perspectives on Islam are likely to make him a concern for the foreseeable future.”
“I think he romanticizes Europe’s debt to Christianity and sanitizes the church’s history and its own relationship to power and violence. Yet he does have a lot of valuable things to say about the nature of secularism and its problems. I think Muslims need to engage with him positively on theological, historical and spiritual fronts,” he said.
Father Francis Tiso from the Washington-based US Conference of Catholic Bishops “urged people to read the lecture carefully in more than one language if possible.”
He said, “A close reading of the lecture at Regensberg opens up the possibility of a profound dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, as well as other religious communities around the world who value rational discourse in harmony with deep faith and commitment.”
Justo Balda Lacunza, a Vatican-based priest specializing in Islamic affairs, said the speech was not intended to look unfavorably on Islam, but was an “examination” of this relationship.
This is not the first time the pope has stoked controversy. In Cologne, Germany, last year he urged Islamic leaders to take responsibility for their communities and teach their young to abhor violence. The pope will make his first visit to a Muslim country in November, when he is scheduled to travel to Turkey.
Turkey’s top Muslim religious leader described the pontiff’s remarks as hateful, prejudiced and biased. “It is a statement full of enmity and grudge,” said Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Turkey’s state-run religious affairs directorate. He also expressed opposition to the pope’s planned visit to Turkey.
“We hope that the church will very quickly... clarify its position so that it does not confuse Islam, which is a revealed religion, with Islamism, which is not a religion but a political ideology,” the head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, told AFP.
Similarly senior Islamic officials in Kuwait demanded an immediate apology from the pope to the Muslim world. Haken Al-Mutairi, secretary general of the Umma (Islamic Nation) party, urged him to apologize for “calumnies against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam.”
The president of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, responded to Benedict’s comments by recalling violent chapters in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported yesterday.
“After the bloodstained conversions in South America, the Crusades in the Muslim world, the coercion of the church by Hitler’s regime, and even the coining of the phrase ‘holy war’ by Pope Urban II, I do not think the church should point a finger at extremist activities in other religions,” he said.
It's friday.
Hooray for Papa!
A remarkable unity? Can we say disconnected from reality?
The Moslem reaction proves the Popes point.
I see the clash of religions and civilizations coming to a head slowly here. I fear a dak future for the world .
As I say, terrorism is the fruit, Islam the root.
Interesting, however, inasmuch as when watching the vitriolic hyperbole fly. . .one can hardly distinguish the Muslim 'attack response MO' from that of our Demrats whose actions/rhetoric; like the Muslims; are always beyond reproach. . .
. . .and anyone who should dare imagine a freedom to 'go there' is met witth the most verbally brutal, as well as threatening, dogmatic response.
Thank you Pope Benedict XVI for not being politically correct but I imagine you'll consider who you quote a bit more now. (~;
Ah gee the ones that like to play dirty got their little feelings hurt, oh let me kiss it and make it better.
After I freaking cut it off you first!
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