In this Discussion
- kissteam1 September 2006
- MMiaAirpo September 2006
- sushishame7 December 2006
Muslims demand apology for Pope's speech
Muslims demand apology for Pope's speech
Muslim leaders have condemned remarks on Islam by Pope Benedict XVI and many say he should personally apologise to dispel the impression that he has joined a campaign against their religion.
In a speech in Germany on Tuesday, the Pope appeared to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that the early Muslims spread their religion by violence.
The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim body, says quotations used by the Pope represented a "character assassination of the Prophet Mohammad" and a "smear campaign".
"The OIC hopes that this campaign is not the prelude of a new Vatican policy towards Islam ... The OIC also hopes that the Vatican will issue statements that reflect its true position and views on Islam and Islamic teachings," it said.
In the speech, the Pope repeated criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
The Pope, who used the terms "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, added "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".
Angry reaction
Morocco's leading daily Attajdid has responded that the Pope has joined in "the Zionist-American alliance against Islam".
Beirut-based Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the world's top Shiite Muslim clerics, has demanded an apology from the Pope.
"We demand that he apologises personally, and not through [Vatican] sources, to all Muslims for such a wrong interpretation," he said.
Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Sheikh of al-Azhar - one of the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious seats of religious studies - says the Pope's statements indicate clear ignorance of Islam.
"They attribute to Islam what it does not contain," he said.
Egypt's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has told Cairo's ambassador to the Vatican to seek clarifications on the Pope's remarks, state news agency MENA says.
Possible backlash
Middle Eastern leaders and analysts have warned of a potentially violent backlash in the region to the Pope's remarks implicitly linking Islam to violence.
Middle East expert Antoine Basbous, from France's Observatory of Arab Countries, says the Middle East is at risk of further violence once word spreads further of the Pope's speech.
"Certain Arab media, from now on, will begin covering this subject in their newspapers, which can only cause reactions," he said.
He says he fears the angry reactions to the Pope's comments are increasing and could soon snowball into something similar to the deadly worldwide protests that followed a Danish newspaper's decision to publish satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in September last year.
Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a senior official with Egypt's main opposition Muslim Brotherhood, predicts "an extreme reaction to the Pope's words, which harm Islam more than the cartoons because they come from a leader who represents millions of people and not just from a journalist".
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit's spokesman, Alaa Al-Hadidi, says the Minister fears the Pope's comments did nothing but reinforce calls for a war of the civilisations.
Among others joining the chorus of condemnation Friday were the governments of Jordan, the ruling Palestinian Islamist militant movement Hamas, and senior Muslim clerics in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
In response to the Muslim backlash against his comments, the Pope's official spokesman said the Pope respected Islam but rejected violence motivated by religion.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Bild newspaper the aim of the Pope's speech has been misunderstood.
"It was an invitation to dialogue between religions," she said.
"What Benedict XVI emphasised was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion."
This is why I hate religion. They all essentially worship the same fucking God, for Christs sake. Benedict needs to stop offending people (There are better ways to say what his people are claiming he tried to say than the way he chose to), and the extremists need to stop giving Islam a bad name, but hey, that'll never happen 'cause this ain't a perfect world.
Muslim leaders have condemned remarks on Islam by Pope Benedict XVI and many say he should personally apologise to dispel the impression that he has joined a campaign against their religion.
In a speech in Germany on Tuesday, the Pope appeared to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that the early Muslims spread their religion by violence.
The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim body, says quotations used by the Pope represented a "character assassination of the Prophet Mohammad" and a "smear campaign".
"The OIC hopes that this campaign is not the prelude of a new Vatican policy towards Islam ... The OIC also hopes that the Vatican will issue statements that reflect its true position and views on Islam and Islamic teachings," it said.
In the speech, the Pope repeated criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
The Pope, who used the terms "jihad" and "holy war" in his lecture, added "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul".
Angry reaction
Morocco's leading daily Attajdid has responded that the Pope has joined in "the Zionist-American alliance against Islam".
Beirut-based Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the world's top Shiite Muslim clerics, has demanded an apology from the Pope.
"We demand that he apologises personally, and not through [Vatican] sources, to all Muslims for such a wrong interpretation," he said.
Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Sheikh of al-Azhar - one of the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious seats of religious studies - says the Pope's statements indicate clear ignorance of Islam.
"They attribute to Islam what it does not contain," he said.
Egypt's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has told Cairo's ambassador to the Vatican to seek clarifications on the Pope's remarks, state news agency MENA says.
Possible backlash
Middle Eastern leaders and analysts have warned of a potentially violent backlash in the region to the Pope's remarks implicitly linking Islam to violence.
Middle East expert Antoine Basbous, from France's Observatory of Arab Countries, says the Middle East is at risk of further violence once word spreads further of the Pope's speech.
"Certain Arab media, from now on, will begin covering this subject in their newspapers, which can only cause reactions," he said.
He says he fears the angry reactions to the Pope's comments are increasing and could soon snowball into something similar to the deadly worldwide protests that followed a Danish newspaper's decision to publish satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in September last year.
Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a senior official with Egypt's main opposition Muslim Brotherhood, predicts "an extreme reaction to the Pope's words, which harm Islam more than the cartoons because they come from a leader who represents millions of people and not just from a journalist".
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit's spokesman, Alaa Al-Hadidi, says the Minister fears the Pope's comments did nothing but reinforce calls for a war of the civilisations.
Among others joining the chorus of condemnation Friday were the governments of Jordan, the ruling Palestinian Islamist militant movement Hamas, and senior Muslim clerics in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
In response to the Muslim backlash against his comments, the Pope's official spokesman said the Pope respected Islam but rejected violence motivated by religion.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Bild newspaper the aim of the Pope's speech has been misunderstood.
"It was an invitation to dialogue between religions," she said.
"What Benedict XVI emphasised was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion."
This is why I hate religion. They all essentially worship the same fucking God, for Christs sake. Benedict needs to stop offending people (There are better ways to say what his people are claiming he tried to say than the way he chose to), and the extremists need to stop giving Islam a bad name, but hey, that'll never happen 'cause this ain't a perfect world.
Comments
"early Muslims spread their religion by violence"
btw; does this remind you of something people from another religion has done?
lol. The religions were not very peacefull. It was (and I believe it still is) more about power than the faith.
"early Muslims spread their religion by violence"
btw; does this remind you of something people from another religion has done?
lol. The religions were not very peacefull. It was (and I believe it still is) more about power than the faith.
Gasp. Other religions have used violence? Surely you lie!
I agree that it is essentially about power and control than faith. You don't need to subscribe to religion to have faith in God and I think that's where everything goes wrong. Religion in theory is great, but in practice people ruin it.
Is it just me, or are Muslims the most discriminated against? I mean, recently in Australia, two Muslims urinated and burned a bible...but can you blame them? Apparently they just had enough of the racial taunting and stuff.