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.
he almost had my respect....now appeasement reigns...
I think it will be very interesting to see how Benedict follows up on this. He seems to be the right man at the right time. John Paul II was the right Pope for the Cold War, but not the current war. This "apology" sounds sort of like "I'm sorry the truth hurts." What he does/says next will tell us a lot. I pray he has the resolve to continue with the unvarnished truth (and I'm Protestant).
exactly. he expressed regret that their feelings were hurt by the truth.
Yes, I read that statement yesterday. The Spokesman says that his speech needs to be read carefully and that if done so, that they would see it for what it is, an attempt to have repectful dialog. NOWHERE does he say that the anything the Pope said was false or that he's sorry for saying it.
ROTF!
A little better, I guess...
(You may want to ask again, they spelled it "your".)
Too funny!
your should be you're, though
I would rather hear it from the pope himself rather than a "spokesman", to be fair.
Nonsense.
I hope you are correct....
Please correct the "your" in the headline.
The vatican attacking Jews? When, where?
Um....where is the quote where he says he's sorry for the speech? Sounds like the only thing he's sorry about is the way Islamists ignored - or are too ignorant of history, since stone age schools probably had better educational standards - the fact that he was quoting an extremely old speech.
Help me understand. Please print the quote of the pope's words that so offend you. Just the facts. Do not print a media spin of his words.
He did not say he was sorry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.