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 the
Muslim faith. A Turkish lawmaker said the pontiff would go down in history "in
the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini" for his
words.
Muslim leaders elsewhere in the
world also expressed dismay, with Pakistan's parliament unanimously
condemning the pope.
The
Vatican said the pope did not intend the
remarks—made in Germany on Tuesday during an address at a
university—to be offensive.
Benedict quoted from a book
recounting a conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor
Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and
Islam.
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"The emperor comes to speak about
the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, '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.'"
Benedict did not explicitly agree
with the statement nor repudiate it.
The comments raised tensions ahead
of his planned visit to Turkey in November—his first pilgrimage
to a Muslim country.
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 a
deliberate distortion.
"He has a dark mentality that
comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not
benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz was quoted
as saying by the state-owned Anatolia news agency. "It looks like an
effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."
"Benedict, the author of such
unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words," he
said. "He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as
[Adolf] Hitler and [Benito] Mussolini."
Turkey's staunchly secular opposition
party also demanded that Benedict apologize to Muslims before his visit to
Turkey.
"The pope has thrown gasoline onto
the fire ... in a world where the risk of a clash between religions is high,"
said Haluk Koc, deputy head of the Republican People's Party, as a small group
of protesters left a black wreath in front of the
Vatican's embassy in
Ankara.
On Thursday,
Turkey's top Islamic cleric, Ali
Bardakoglu, asked Benedict to apologize for the remarks and unleashed a string
of accusations against Christianity.
In
Beirut, Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim
cleric denounced the remarks Friday and demanded the pope personally apologize
for insulting Islam.
"We do not accept the apology
through Vatican channels ... and ask [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 prayers sermon.
After Benedict returned to
Italy on Thursday,
Vatican spokesperson the Rev. Federico
Lombardi said, "It certainly wasn't the intention of the pope to carry out a
deep examination of jihad [holy war] and on Muslim thought on it, much less to
offend the sensibility of Muslim believers."
Lombardi insisted the pope
respects Islam. Benedict wants to "cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue
toward the other religions and cultures, obviously also toward Islam," he
said.
In a significant development
Friday, the pope appointed Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, a French prelate with
experience in the Muslim world, as the
Vatican's new foreign
minister.
But anger still swept across the
Muslim world, with Pakistan's parliament unanimously adopting
a resolution condemning the pope for making what it called "derogatory" comments
about Islam, and seeking an apology from him.
"Anyone who describes Islam as a
religion as intolerant encourages violence," Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Tasnim Aslam said.
"What he has done is that he has
quoted very offensive remarks by some emperor hundreds of years ago," she added.
"It is not helpful [because] we have been trying to bridge the gap, calling for
dialogue and understanding between religions."
Aslam said Muslims had a long
history of tolerance, adding that when the Catholic
kingdom of Spain expelled its Jewish population in
1492 they were welcomed by Muslim nations such as the Turkish Ottoman
Empire.
Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any
other in the world, had no immediate response to the pope's comments, but
religious groups were quick to protest, condemning the words as insensitive and
damaging.
"A respected religious leader like
the pope should not say such things, especially as nations across the globe are
struggling to find ways to bridge differences between faiths and build
understanding," said Ma'ruf Amin, a member of Indonesia Council of Clerics, the
country's highest Islamic body.
"Such words hurt Muslims all over
the world," he said.
The head of
Britain's largest Muslim body said it was
disturbed by the pope's use of a 14th-century passage. The Muslim Council, which
represents 400 groups in Britain, said the emperor's views were
"ill-informed and frankly bigoted."
"One would expect a religious
leader such as the pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the
Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations
between the followers of Islam and Catholicism," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the
council's secretary-general.
Elsewhere,
Syria's grand mufti, the country's top
Sunni Muslim religious authority, sent a letter to the Pope saying he feared the
comments would worsen interfaith relations.
In
Cairo, Egypt, about 100 demonstrators gathered
in an anti-Vatican protest outside the al-Azhar mosque, chanting "Oh Crusaders,
oh cowards! Down with the pope!"
Benedict, who has made the fight
against growing secularism in Western society a theme of his pontificate, is
expected to visit Turkey in late November. He was invited
by the staunchly secularist Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who said the
invitation was part of an effort to strengthen dialogue between religions.
(AP)
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