Pope had not intended to offend Muslims: Vatican
Till Friday afternoon, much of Europe maintained a dismayed but resolute silence about the Pope controversy, only breaking it after Muslim protests in India began to lead television news bulletins across the continent
Rashmee Roshan Lall | TNN
London: An embattled Vatican has desperately begun a damage-limitation exercise 72 hours after Pope Benedict XVI set off a storm of protest in the Muslim world and beyond by making a speech that appeared to criticise Prophet Mohammed, the concept of jehad and an apparent lack of rationality in the Islamic faith.
But even as a statement issued by the Vatican insisted the Pope “had not intended to offend Muslims’’ and that “the Holy Father’s intention is to cultivate a position of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, and that clearly includes Islam’’, the Holy See continued to be buffeted by waves of criticism from Muslim leaders, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and a top religious official in constitutionally-secular, culturally-Muslim Turkey, where the Pope is due in November on his first papal visit to a Muslim country.
Till Friday afternoon, much of Europe maintained a dismayed but resolute silence about the controversy, only breaking it after Muslim protests in India began to lead television news bulletins across the continent.
In the UK, Imran Waheed, a media representative of the banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said the Pope’s comments will “only fuel the work of those who disparage Islam and Muslims in their pursuit of the ‘war on terror’.’’
Waheed said the Pope’s remarks would “be seen as an endorsement by those who seek to fuel intolerance in Europe and polarisation in the world. Surely what is needed today is discussion and understanding rather than statements that fuel mistrust and ignorance.’’ He said it was disingenuous to insist the Pope was merely quoting a Byzantine emperor because the words “follow consistently negative, violent and extreme descriptions of Islam—the use of the term ‘Islamofascist’ by George W Bush, ‘evil ideology’ by Tony Blair—and the gratuitous publication of the offensive Danish newspaper cartoons throughout Europe earlier this year.’’
The Pope is to visit Turkey to meet the spiritual leader of the world’s 200 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, whose headquarters are historically in Istanbul.
Defiant Vatican officials insisted that plans for the visit were going ahead as scheduled despite the furore over his remarks at Regensburg University on September 12.
Three days into his visit to his homeland Germany, the Pope delivered the almost-instantly controversial address titled ‘Faith, Reason and the University Memories and Reflections’ in which he quoted from a book recounting a conversation between a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
In the full text of the Pope’s controversial speech hastily issued by the Vatican on Friday, Benedict XVI said he was reminded of theologians’ need “to correlate reason as a whole recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (minister) of part of the dialogue carried on— perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara—by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.’’
He continued, “It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Koran, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between—as they were called—three ‘Laws’ or ‘rules of life’: the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran.’’
The Pope said, “The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: ‘There is no compulsion in religion’. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the ‘Book’ and the ‘infidels’, he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: ‘Show me just what Mohammed 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 Pope said the emperor then went on to “explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. ‘God’, he says, ‘is not pleased by blood—and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body.’’ The Pope concluded, “The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality’’.
Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi insisted the pontiff was not giving an interpretation of Islam as “something violent’’. Lombardi added, “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the Pope to carry out a deep examination of jehad (holy war) and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers’’.
In an attempt to stamp out the spreading flames of fury, Vatican officials stressed to journalists on Friday that the Pope had said “I quote’’ twice to stress that the Byzantine Christian emperor’s words he quoted were not his.
Furore in Muslim world over Pope’s remarks
Islamic Leaders Lash Out At Benedict, Demand Personal Apology
Ankara: Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about Islam, as Muslim leaders in the Middle East expressed dismay and Pakistan’s parliament unanimously condemned him. The Vatican said the Pope did not intend the remarks to be offensive.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world’s largest group of political Islamists, demanded an apology from the Pope and called on the governments of Islamic countries to break relations with the Vatican if he does not make one.
Turkey’s top Islamic cleric, Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Bardakoglu, asked Benedict to apologise for 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 trip in a Muslim country.
On Thursday, when the Pope returned to Italy, Vatican spokesman, Reverend Federico Lombardi, said, “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers.’’
Bardakoglu said on Friday that Lombardi’s comments were not enough. “The Pope himself should stand at the dais and say ‘I take it all back, I was misunderstood,’ and apologise in order to contribute to world peace,’’ he said.
Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, said Benedict’s remarks were either “the result of pitiful ignorance’’ about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths. It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.’’
He said, “Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks is going down in history for his words. However... he is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini.’’
In Pakistan, the Parliament passed a resolution condemning the remarks, as Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican’s ambassador.
In Beirut, Lebanon’s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric denounced the remarks and demanded the Pope personally apologise for an insult to Islam.
“We ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology—not through his officials—to Muslims for this false reading (of Islam),’’ Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah told worshippers in his Friday sermon.
A Lebanese government official said the country’s ambassador to the Vatican has been instructed to seek clarifications on the pontiff ’s remarks.
In Syria, the grand mufti, the country’s top Sunni Muslim religious authority, sent a letter to the pope saying he feared the pontiff ’s comments on Islam would worsen interfaith relations.
And in Cairo, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the capital’s Al Azhar mosque.
In Iraq’s Shiite Muslim-stronghold of Kufa, Sheik Salah Al Ubaidi criticised the pope during Friday prayers, saying his remarks were a second assault on Islam. “Last year and in the same month the Danish cartoon assaulted Islam,’’ he said, referring to a Danish newspaper’s publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which triggered outrage in the Muslim world.
Islamic groups in Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other in the world, said the pope’s words did not help efforts to find ways to bridge differences between faiths and urged followers not to react with violence.
Till Friday afternoon, much of Europe maintained a dismayed but resolute silence about the Pope controversy, only breaking it after Muslim protests in India began to lead television news bulletins across the continent
Rashmee Roshan Lall | TNN
London: An embattled Vatican has desperately begun a damage-limitation exercise 72 hours after Pope Benedict XVI set off a storm of protest in the Muslim world and beyond by making a speech that appeared to criticise Prophet Mohammed, the concept of jehad and an apparent lack of rationality in the Islamic faith.
But even as a statement issued by the Vatican insisted the Pope “had not intended to offend Muslims’’ and that “the Holy Father’s intention is to cultivate a position of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, and that clearly includes Islam’’, the Holy See continued to be buffeted by waves of criticism from Muslim leaders, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and a top religious official in constitutionally-secular, culturally-Muslim Turkey, where the Pope is due in November on his first papal visit to a Muslim country.
Till Friday afternoon, much of Europe maintained a dismayed but resolute silence about the controversy, only breaking it after Muslim protests in India began to lead television news bulletins across the continent.
In the UK, Imran Waheed, a media representative of the banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said the Pope’s comments will “only fuel the work of those who disparage Islam and Muslims in their pursuit of the ‘war on terror’.’’
Waheed said the Pope’s remarks would “be seen as an endorsement by those who seek to fuel intolerance in Europe and polarisation in the world. Surely what is needed today is discussion and understanding rather than statements that fuel mistrust and ignorance.’’ He said it was disingenuous to insist the Pope was merely quoting a Byzantine emperor because the words “follow consistently negative, violent and extreme descriptions of Islam—the use of the term ‘Islamofascist’ by George W Bush, ‘evil ideology’ by Tony Blair—and the gratuitous publication of the offensive Danish newspaper cartoons throughout Europe earlier this year.’’
The Pope is to visit Turkey to meet the spiritual leader of the world’s 200 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, whose headquarters are historically in Istanbul.
Defiant Vatican officials insisted that plans for the visit were going ahead as scheduled despite the furore over his remarks at Regensburg University on September 12.
Three days into his visit to his homeland Germany, the Pope delivered the almost-instantly controversial address titled ‘Faith, Reason and the University Memories and Reflections’ in which he quoted from a book recounting a conversation between a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
In the full text of the Pope’s controversial speech hastily issued by the Vatican on Friday, Benedict XVI said he was reminded of theologians’ need “to correlate reason as a whole recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (minister) of part of the dialogue carried on— perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara—by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.’’
He continued, “It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Koran, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between—as they were called—three ‘Laws’ or ‘rules of life’: the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran.’’
The Pope said, “The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: ‘There is no compulsion in religion’. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the ‘Book’ and the ‘infidels’, he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: ‘Show me just what Mohammed 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 Pope said the emperor then went on to “explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. ‘God’, he says, ‘is not pleased by blood—and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body.’’ The Pope concluded, “The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality’’.
Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi insisted the pontiff was not giving an interpretation of Islam as “something violent’’. Lombardi added, “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the Pope to carry out a deep examination of jehad (holy war) and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers’’.
In an attempt to stamp out the spreading flames of fury, Vatican officials stressed to journalists on Friday that the Pope had said “I quote’’ twice to stress that the Byzantine Christian emperor’s words he quoted were not his.
Furore in Muslim world over Pope’s remarks
Islamic Leaders Lash Out At Benedict, Demand Personal Apology
Ankara: Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about Islam, as Muslim leaders in the Middle East expressed dismay and Pakistan’s parliament unanimously condemned him. The Vatican said the Pope did not intend the remarks to be offensive.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world’s largest group of political Islamists, demanded an apology from the Pope and called on the governments of Islamic countries to break relations with the Vatican if he does not make one.
Turkey’s top Islamic cleric, Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Bardakoglu, asked Benedict to apologise for 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 trip in a Muslim country.
On Thursday, when the Pope returned to Italy, Vatican spokesman, Reverend Federico Lombardi, said, “It certainly wasn’t the intention of the pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers.’’
Bardakoglu said on Friday that Lombardi’s comments were not enough. “The Pope himself should stand at the dais and say ‘I take it all back, I was misunderstood,’ and apologise in order to contribute to world peace,’’ he said.
Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, said Benedict’s remarks were either “the result of pitiful ignorance’’ about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths. It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.’’
He said, “Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks is going down in history for his words. However... he is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini.’’
In Pakistan, the Parliament passed a resolution condemning the remarks, as Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican’s ambassador.
In Beirut, Lebanon’s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric denounced the remarks and demanded the Pope personally apologise for an insult to Islam.
“We ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology—not through his officials—to Muslims for this false reading (of Islam),’’ Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah told worshippers in his Friday sermon.
A Lebanese government official said the country’s ambassador to the Vatican has been instructed to seek clarifications on the pontiff ’s remarks.
In Syria, the grand mufti, the country’s top Sunni Muslim religious authority, sent a letter to the pope saying he feared the pontiff ’s comments on Islam would worsen interfaith relations.
And in Cairo, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the capital’s Al Azhar mosque.
In Iraq’s Shiite Muslim-stronghold of Kufa, Sheik Salah Al Ubaidi criticised the pope during Friday prayers, saying his remarks were a second assault on Islam. “Last year and in the same month the Danish cartoon assaulted Islam,’’ he said, referring to a Danish newspaper’s publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which triggered outrage in the Muslim world.
Islamic groups in Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other in the world, said the pope’s words did not help efforts to find ways to bridge differences between faiths and urged followers not to react with violence.