Posted on 09/21/2006 2:20:42 PM PDT by wagglebee
About 1,000 Muslim clerics and religious scholars meeting Thursday in eastern Pakistan demanded the removal of Pope Benedict XVI for making what they called "insulting remarks" against Islam.
Benedict "should be removed from his position immediately for encouraging war and fanning hostility between various faiths" and "making insulting remarks" against Islam, said a joint statement issued by the clerics and scholars at the end of their one-day convention.
The "pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to the Prophet (Muhammad). ... If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences," it said.
The meeting was organized by the radical Islamic group Jamaat al-Dawat, which runs schools, colleges and medical clinics. In April, Washington put the group on a list of terrorist organizations for its alleged links with militants fighting in the Indian part of Kashmir.
The meeting came after the pope said Sunday he was "deeply sorry" about the reactions to his remarks and that they did not reflect his own opinions.
He said Wednesday that he has "deep respect" for Islam, but he did not offer an apology that was demanded by some Muslim leaders offended by his remarks in Germany last week.
The pope acknowledged that his remarks were open to misinterpretation, but insisted he had not intended to endorse a negative view of Islam.
In Germany, Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
"This quote unfortunately lent itself to be misunderstood," the pontiff said Wednesday. "In no way did I wish to make my own the words of the medieval emperor. I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason go together."
The clerics and religious scholars said they did not regard Benedict's latest comments as an apology.
"The pope has neither accepted his mistake, nor apologized for his words," it said.
The statement also said jihad was not terrorism and that "Islam was not propagated with the sword, but it became popular and was accepted by the oppressed peoples of the world because of its universal values and teachings."
"Jihad is waged to rid an area, state, or the world of oppression, violence, cruelty, and terrorism, and bring peace and relief to the people. History is full of incidents where Muslims waged jihad to provide relief to people of many faiths, especially Jews and Christians," it said.
Pakistan is the world's second most populous Muslim country, and its people have held small, peaceful rallies since the publication of pope's remarks about Islam.
Then why did the Mohammadans threaten to kill the Pope?
Pakistan is the world's second most populous Muslim country, and its people have held small, peaceful rallies since the publication of pope's remarks about Islam.
Note to AP on their bias:
Threatening to kill the Pope IS NOT PEACEFUL!
Oh yeah, well guess what....you don't get to decide.
You touch my Pope and your flearidden people will learn about me from cave drawings.
but it became popular and was accepted by the oppressed peoples of the world because of its universal values and teachings."
Millions of murdered say otherwise.
I guess the concept of hypocrisy is lost on them. "You say we are not peaceful, we cut off your head."
"If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences," it said."
Oh, we're changing our stance on islam, and yes, it will face severe consequences. This little game of brinksmanship is about to go into overdrive......
So many comments come to mind, but ultimately they are all synopsized in my tagline, so never mind.
I think the Holy Spirit is at work here.
Nothing can stand in the way, especially Islam.
"Benedict 'should be removed from his position immediately'"
That Spain election thing sure went to their heads, didn't it?
Do not bow to the Islamic supremacists.
We do not hold to Islamic laws of blasphemy. Slavery, honor killings, and holy war are all legal under Islam.
If you bow to some of their laws, you open the door to accepting the whole hog.
Oh no, I have blasphemed Islam by mentioning it in the same sentence with a pig.
The ideology of death, destruction and coercion speaks again.
There is no answer to this except complete and total expulsion.
This prophet of theirs is a thin skinned p@ssy, isn't he? What a death cult...
Talk about your target rich environment, couldn't we have had a stray drone get lost and malfunction somewhere over a coincidental meeting in Lahore?
It will take the killing of the pope or a nuclear bomb striking the U.S. for us to do what needs to be done to these people.
I was vocal in 1993 about the first World Trade Center attack, they TRIED to topple the buildings and kill about 50,000 people, Bill Clinton yawned.
It would be like if I came to your family reunion, opened fire with a machine gun and miraculously missed, would you say: Hey Bob you missed killing my family, no harm, no foul, let's talk about it. I don't think so.
In Islam that's not hypocrisy, it's irony.
In Islam that's not hypocrisy, it's irony.
Uh, yeah, like THAT'S gonna happen.
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