Posted on 09/16/2006 5:25:37 AM PDT by Dark Skies
The Pope has apologised to the world's Muslim community after making comments about the history of Islam, according to media reports.
He said he hoped the speech had not been taken as being intentionally offensive and insisted that the Vatican was "strongly upset" by the Islamic world's reaction, the BBC reports.
Delivering a speech on Tuesday at a university in his homeland of Germany, Pope Benedict XVI quoted criticisms of the Prophet Muhammad made by 14th century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Palaeologus, who claimed that the Islamic prophet had brought "things only evil and inhuman" on the world, "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
The Pope made a point of saying "I quote" during his speech in order to distance himself from the sentiment, but his comments have attracted widespread criticism from leading Muslims.
Their demands that the pontiff apologises for his speech, which explored the relationship between violence and faith, appear to have been met today.
Commentators claim that the Pope's planned visit to the mainly Islamic country of Turkey in November is now in jeopardy.
In the Gaza Strip, several thousand Palestinians took to the streets in protest at the Pope's comments, while Pakistan's national assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling on the pontiff to retract his statement.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf warned that "sinister tendencies" to associate terrorism with Muslims were helping to fuel a sense of alienation between the west and Islam.
"Our strategy must clearly oppose the sinister tendencies to associate terrorism with Islam and discrimination against Muslims, which are giving rise to an ominous alienation between the west and the world of Islam," said Mr Musharraf, addressing the Non-Aligned Movement's summit in Cuba.
The Pope's comments have also sparked outrage in the UK, where the Muslim Council of Britain had urged the head of the Catholic church to "urgently clarify" his comments, which the organisation said had caused "dismay and hurt" to Muslims.
Meanwhile, the first Muslim woman to enter the House of Lords has said that UK politicians must put pressure on the Pope to apologise for the "disappointment and hurt" caused by his remarks.
Speaking on Radio 4, Labour peer Baroness Uddin said: "I am worried about the current climate which licenses this type of irresponsible analysis of religion. If he did not mean it he should not have said it."
Urging Muslims to "show reverence and reflection" in their response to the Pope's comments, she added: "What I do not want is any effigy burning here or any irrational discussion. Already the environment is such that demonising Islam has become acceptable. We have got to be thoughtful in our responses."
However, German chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the pontiff, stressing that critics had misunderstood the aim of his speech.
"It was an invitation to dialogue between religions," said Ms Merkel, in an article published in the Bild newspaper today.
"What Benedict XVI emphasised was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion," she stressed.
The Vatican has attempted to quell discontent over the Pope's comments by insisting that he was attempting to put across a "clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence".
"It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to undertake a comprehensive study of the jihad and of Muslim ideas on the subject, still less to offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful," Vatican press office director Federico Lombardi said.
Thank you!
If you had read the entire piece, you would realize that that is probably true...he was commented mostly about the type of theological studies that deny the metaphysical and go for the modern type of historical Christianity like the Jesus seminar people...it's been part of a series of talks he's been doing.
This is his only true apology:
Reading the statement, new Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope's position on Islam was in line with Vatican teaching that the Church "esteems Muslims, who adore the only God".
"The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers"
He's not backpeddling at all. He believes strongly that God doesn't want us to use him as an excuse to do violence, and that God behaves in reasonable ways, for the most part.
More than that, though, and this is what the press (and maybe the Islamic press missed, too) in the speech, he is intimating that Islam's view of the nature of God is flawed (which, as a devout Christian, I know, like all devout Christians, he believes.) And he said it in a public forum.
One thing this shows for sure. Insinuating that Islam is violent, and that using force for conversion is a bad thing, implying "Islam, your approach to God is wrong" even buried in the depths of a talk about something much different, now becomes an act of bravery, because the Islamic chip on the shoulder has gotten huge.
You can't even say someone once said it. Cause that's how the Pope phrased it. The emperor once said....
And that was enough to make the Pope a Hitler in many people's eyes, who also haven't read what was said. They just always, any more, assume the worst, because that's what fits their world view, and that proves a lot of people's points about the problems with Islam in this day and age.
You can't feel good about this, can you? Do you have respect and esteem for the Islamic faith? I don't. They're evil.
Excuse me, but those are the words of the Vatican Press Secretary, Fr. Lombardi....NOT THE POPE's. The Pope has had trouble with people TRYING to interpret what he says. Show me text of the Pope's ACTUAL words, not of his spokesman.
A) why would anyone give a rats a__ about muslim reaction?
B) i don't and won't...ever....
C) note to self, "never forget they wish to kill me, my wife, my kids...or convert us by-the-sword..."
You may have read the article 3 times but ya' need to work on your comprehension......
There was no apology.....
-Repeat-There was no apology.....
-Repeat-There was no apology.....
-Repeat-There was no apology.....
I stated it four times because the three times reading thing didn't seem to be working for ya'
He's probably had a Fatwa issued against him. Any bets as to how long before the Vatican is attacked?
Yeah, what's with us Christians ignoring all those Amish homocide bombings and contrating only on the poor, misunderstood Muslim terrorists? It's SINISTER, I tell you.....SINISTER!!
If the Pope was a FReeper, his comments would seem mild in comparison.
DECLARATION CONCERNING POPE'S REGENSBURG ADDRESS
VATICAN CITY, SEP 15, 2006 (VIS) - Yesterday evening, Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. released the following declaration to journalists concerning the interpretation of certain passages of the address delivered by the Holy Father at the University of Regensburg on September 12.
"Concerning the reaction of Muslim leaders to certain passages of the Holy Father's address at the University of Regensburg, it should be noted that what the Holy Father has to heart - and which emerges from an attentive reading of the text - is a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence.
"It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to undertake a comprehensive study of the jihad and of Muslim ideas on the subject, still less to offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful.
"Quite the contrary, what emerges clearly from the Holy Father's discourses is a warning, addressed to Western culture, to avoid 'the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom.' A just consideration of the religious dimension is, in fact, an essential premise for fruitful dialogue with the great cultures and religions of the world. And indeed, in concluding his address in Regensburg, Benedict XVI affirmed how 'the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures.'
"What is clear then, is the Holy Father's desire to cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, including, of course, Islam."
OP/POPE:UNIVERSITY REGENSBURG/LOMBARDI VIS 060915 (300)
Call it whatever you want but there is no way he showed courage. I have lost respect for him. I'm sick over this.
Here ya go
link .
He hopes they will understand the true sense of his words: JIHAD IS EVIL
a: they are either nuts, have a deathwish, are muslim..or, all three.
b: Concur most strongly.
C: I will never forget.
No he didn't, but that's a really good metaphore.
You just wanna be sick over this.
The facts and the statement don't justify it.
Seems to me the muslim response just proves the point.
We're ALL sorry they're frickin' lunatics, how's that?
wanna bet that it's coming to a newspaper near you soon?
Just now heard on FOX that this wimpy apology is not satisfying Muslims. They want more. Seems to me that if Muslims are going to use this as an excuse to create havoc, we should at least be getting our money's worth and have the Pope stand up there like a true man condemning what they are doing. Yea, afraid he's created a problem for himself by backing down. It's not going to appease the Muslims and a whole bunch of Westerners like myself feel let down.
I'm sorry that you are disappointed.
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