Muslim nations, religious leaders outraged over pontiff’s reference to Islam
The Washington Post
BEIRUT — A medieval reference in an academic lecture by Pope Benedict XVI has unleashed a wave of denunciations, outrage and frustration across the Muslim world, with officials in Turkey and Pakistan condemning the pontiff, Islamic activist groups organizing protests and a leading religious figure in Lebanon demanding he personally apologize.
The reception to the pope’s Tuesday speech in Germany was a reminder of the precarious, suspicious state of affairs between a West that often views Islam as a faith in need of reform and a Muslim world that feels besieged after the 9/11 attacks.
Some of the criticism evoked the Crusades; others accused the Vatican of joining a Western-led war on Islam.
“We ask him to offer a personal apology — not through his officials — to Muslims for this false reading” of Islam, said Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, one of the world’s leading Shiite Muslim clerics, who lives in Beirut.
The pope began his lecture at the University of Regensburg by quoting from a 14th-century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologos and a Persian scholar. In a passage on the concept of holy war: “Show me just what Muhammad 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 quoted the emperor as saying.
The pope used the passage as a preface to a discussion of faith and reason.
“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 spokesman Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio.
But the reaction was quick — though largely peaceful:
• PAKISTAN: The parliament adopted a resolution condemning the pope for what it called derogatory comments and seeking an apology.
• TURKEY: The deputy leader of the prime minister’s Islamic-inspired party called Benedict’s remarks the result of ignorance or a provocation.
• EGYPT: Protesters in the Arab world’s most populous country chanted, “Oh Crusaders, oh cowards! Down with the pope!”
• GAZA: Thousands of Palestinians protested after Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said the pope’s lecture had offended Muslims everywhere.
• IRAQ: Across the sectarian Sunni-Shiite Muslim divide, clerics called the remarks another campaign against Islam.
