Freedom of speech is a quality many in the West believe in and defend with our lives. It is hardly an issue for the Global Islamic Community to being picking on a Roman Catholic Pope about as he did nothing wrong. I appreciate Pope Benedikt in making reference to Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus in his talk at Regensburg. It was an important historical perspective when reflecting academically on the progression of relationships the Roman Catholic Church has had with other faiths.
Pope Benedikt should not have apologized and in fact I don't believe he did. There was absolutely no maliciousness and no reason for him to be made to appear less a person or authority than he sincerely is.
Cardinal Bertone on Islamic Reaction to Pope's Address
"The Church Regards With Esteem Also the Muslims"
Given the reaction in Muslim quarters to certain passages of the Holy Father's address at the University of Regensburg, and the clarifications and explanations already presented through the director of the Holy See press office, I would like to add the following: -- The position of the Pope concerning Islam is unequivocally that expressed by the conciliar document "Nostra Aetate": "The Church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even his inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God.
The words coming out of the Vatican are on 'behalf' of the Pope. He considers all people believing in God as important. He is not shunning anyone and wants to continue to reach out to all those prayerful. This is not an apology. It is a way of bringing an understanding of the love The Holy Father has for people that seek comfort in God. It is an address to the Muslim community in their misinterpretation and distress and no other people of any faith should view this incident as anything more.Pope Benedikt is a man of sincere love for the roots of his faith. It is my belief when a scholar such as any of the men to date chosen as Pope comes to lead people it is with eyes wide open about the churches past. To understand the history of any aspect of life, endear it by placing a perspective to it, learning from it and going forward is the greatest justice a sincere leader can bring to his teachings. I am happy and thrilled he was able without inhibition to speak openly about the Roman Catholic Church. It shows his sincere dedication to the faith, the people of the faith and his mastery of knowledge. I congratulate Pope Benedikt on his proficiency in knowledge he brought with obvious fervor to his talk at the University of Regensburg. He should continue to provide a depth of understanding to people that seek it without a second consideration.
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In regard to the Muslim commuity? They are seeking inappropriately control over all faiths. They seek control of too much in regard to the political affairs of countries on Earth and if they don't think I mean it there are a few Danish Cartoons I would not mind putting back on this blog. I removed them out of respect and consideration for people who APPEARED to be sensitive about the image of their prophet and God, but in brow beating a dearly kind man who seeks nothing but purity of thought and inclusion of all those that love God I am having second thoughts to the politicizing of these issues.
Issues of faith are not about politics, they are about one's soul. And now, a Roman Catholic Pope is being threatened with his life by Muslims?
Oh, Really.
Threats of an attack on Vatican (click on)
BY PAUL H.B. SHINDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Priest shows bullets following an attack in the West Bank.
A radical Muslim group threatened a suicide attack on the Vatican yesterday even as the Holy See said Pope Benedict regretted that some Muslims were offended by his comments about the role of violence in the spread of Islam.
The pontiff "sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful, and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.
But the Pope's apology by proxy was not enough to quell a string of attacks against Christian churches on the West Bank and in Gaza. And Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood demanded a direct mea culpa from the head of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
Mohammed Bishr, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member, said the statement "was not an apology" but a "pretext that the Pope was quoting somebody else as saying so and so." "We need the Pope to admit the big mistake he has committed and then agree on apologizing, because we will not accept others to apologize on his behalf," Bishr said.
An Iraqi insurgent group threatened the Vatican with a suicide attack over the Pope's remarks, according to a statement posted yesterday on the Web.
"We swear to God to send you people who adore death as much as you adore life," said the message posted in the name of the Mujahedeen Army on a Web site frequently used by militant groups. The message's authenticity could not be independently verified. The statement was addressed to "you dog of Rome" and threatens to "shake your thrones and break your crosses in your home."
Protests prompted several leaders in Muslim-majority nations to speak out yesterday or lodge objections through diplomatic channels. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Benedict should withdraw his "ugly and unfortunate" comments.
Morocco's King Mohammed recalled his Vatican ambassador for consultations, while Yemen's president denounced the pontiff.
Benedict sparked the outrage when he gave a speech last week in which he quoted the criticism of the Prophet Muhammed by 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Muhammed brought was "evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Originally published on September 17, 2006
And others are being killed?
Nun shot dead as apology by Pope fails to quell the violence (Click on)
STEPHEN MCGINTY
Pontiff says sorry for reaction of Muslims to speech on Islam
An Italian nun was shot in the back at a hospital in Somalia
Churches in the West Bank have been attacked in reaction to the speech
Key quote "At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg" - Pope Benedict XVI
Story in full
POPE Benedict XVI attempted to dampen Islamic fury over his controversial speech yesterday by stating that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction. But he stopped short of making a full apology.
As the worst Vatican crisis in decades deepened with the news that an Italian nun had been shot dead in Somalia and that more churches had been torched in the West Bank, the Pope attempted to draw a line under the affair by expressing regret.
The pontiff's attempt to defuse the situation came as news broke that an Italian Catholic nun was shot dead in a children's hospital in Mogadishu. A senior Somalian Islamist said: "There is a very high possibility the people who killed her were angered by the Catholic Pope's recent comments against Islam."
The nun, in her mid-sixties, identified as Sister Leonella Sgorbati, was shot dead with her bodyguard by two gunmen at the hospital for mothers and children in northern Mogadishu.
The bodyguard died instantly, but the nun, from the Missionaries of the Consolation order based in Nepi near Rome, was rushed into an operating theatre after being hit by three or four bullets in the chest, stomach and back.
"She died in the hospital treatment room," a doctor, Ali Mohamed Hassan, said. "She was shot outside the hospital, going to her house just across the gate."
Islamic security chiefs said two people had been arrested over the shootings.
In a public statement, made during the Angelus, his traditional Sunday address, the Pope distanced himself from the medieval quote he had used last week in which the Prophet Muhammad was said to have brought only "evil and inhuman" things "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
Speaking from the balcony of Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer retreat, Benedict XVI stressed that the words of Manuel Paleologos II, a 14th-century Byzantine Christian emperor, did not reflect his own personal opinion.
The head of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics said: "At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims...These [words] were in fact a quotation from a medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought."
The Pope noted that the Vatican secretary of state on Saturday had issued a statement trying to explain his words, which he delivered last Tuesday in a speech during a pilgrimage to his native Germany.
He added: "I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect."
Last night, however, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt demanded a "clear apology".
Mohammed Habib, the movement's deputy leader, said: "It does not rise to the level of a clear apology and, based on this, we're calling on the Pope of the Vatican to issue a clear apology that will decisively end any confusion."
Mr Habib had earlier described the Pope's remarks as a "sufficient apology".
Yesterday, Mehmet Aydin, a Turkish state minister, said the Pope seemed to be saying he was sorry for the outrage but not necessarily the remarks themselves. He said: "You either have to say this 'I'm sorry' in a proper way or not say it at all. Are you sorry for saying such a thing or because of its consequences?"
The uproar had raised question marks about whether a papal visit to Turkey in November could go ahead, but the Turkish government, while calling his remarks "ugly", said there were no plans to call it off.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, also entered the debate yesterday when he urged world religious leaders to show "responsibility and restraint" - a reference to Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam and the ensuing anger among Muslims.
Mr Putin went on to say that he hoped that "the leaders of the main world faiths will have sufficient strength and wisdom to avoid any extremes in relations between faiths".
In Palestine yesterday, more churches in the occupied West Bank were attacked in reaction to the speech. The attacks followed similar incidents on Friday and Saturday and caused minor damage but no injuries. In the town of Tubas outside Jenin, a group of Palestinians set fire to a Roman Catholic church, causing minor damage before the flames were put out.
A Roman Catholic church in the town of Tulkarm also sustained damage in a fire. Witnesses said they saw a man set the fire in the early morning. However, no-one claimed responsibility for either of the attacks.
In an attempt to calm concerns in the Muslim world, the Vatican announced that the papal nuncios - ambassadors - to Muslim nations had been issued with translation of the speech and would be addressing the matter with political leaders. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state, said: "We have asked our nuncios in Muslim countries to take the Pope's message and explain his declarations to the political and religious authorities. They will give a clarification of the Pope's words and extinguish the flames of misunderstanding."
Senior officials inside the Catholic Church were debating that the current crisis could have been averted if Pope Benedict had not demoted Britain's most senior figure in the Vatican.
Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, from Birmingham, had been head of "inter- religious dialogue" at the Vatican since 2002 and was the Pope's top expert on Islamic affairs.
However, in February Pope Benedict made him a papal nuncio in Cairo.
Yesterday a Vatican diplomat said: "Michael, or Fitz, as we know him, is an expert on Muslim affairs and this would not have happened if he had still been around.
"He would have known that saying something like this would have been a red rag to a bull but for some reason the Pope got rid of him and it was the worst mistake he made."
Father Thomas Reese, author of Inside the Vatican, said shortly after Archbishop Fitzgerald was demoted: "The Pope's worst decision so far has been the exiling of Archbishop Fitzgerald. He was the smartest guy in the Vatican on relations with Muslims. You don't exile someone like that, you listen to them."
Last night, when contacted in Lourdes, where he is attending a conference, Archbishop Fitzgerald said: "I have been away and not really followed all this so it would not be fair for me to comment.
"I hope that Pope Benedict's apology smoothes things over in the Muslim world - other than that I have nothing to say."
Professor Giuseppe Alberigo, of the Institute of Religious Science in Bologna, said it was the first time a Pope had said sorry, and compared Benedict XVI to John Paul II.
He said: "It is the first time that a Pope has apologised and tried to appease criticism for something he has said.
"Certain themes should be spoken about more prudently as the Crusades have never been forgotten. Pope John Paul II would never have said anything similar."
And the Middle East Christians are worried about their own lives and faith? Oh, really !
Mideast Christians in uneasy position (click on)
CAIRO, Egypt -- Christians in the Middle East are growing uneasy over the widespread Muslim anger at Pope Benedict XVI, saying they increasingly worry about growing divisions between the two faiths.
The region's minority Christian communities generally live in peace with their Muslim neighbors, but their relations are often strained and the uproar over the pope has brought some violence - attacks on at least seven churches in the Palestinian territories over the weekend.
"I wish the Catholic pope had considered the reaction to his remarks," the head of the Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, told journalists Sunday.
"Being enthusiastic about one's religion shouldn't lead to judging other peoples' religions. "Criticizing others' faith breeds enmity and divisions."
The Greek Orthodox bishop of Homs in central Syria said that he was pleased that Benedict expressed regret Sunday for offending Muslims with comments last week about Islam and violence and that he hoped Muslim anger would recede.
"We hope that hearts will remain open between Muslims and Christians, and they will go on with the process of coexistence," Bishop Isidore Battikha said.
Two churches were set on fire in the West Bank on Sunday, a day after Muslims hurled firebombs and fired guns at four other West Bank churches and one in the Gaza Strip to protest the pope's comments.
Authorities in Lebanon, where Christians account for about 36 percent of the Arab country's population, tightened security outside churches as a precaution Sunday. They said there was no specific threat against Christians.
Police said security also was tight around churches and universities in Egypt, where Christians make up about 10 percent of the country's 73 million people.
Rafik Habib, an Egyptian sociologist and Coptic Christian, said the situation between the two faiths remains dangerous.
"This comes during an intense stage to harm the Muslim-Christian dialogue and emphasizes that there is some kind of Crusade (against Muslims) and animosity and complicates the relations between Muslims and Christians in our region," he said.
Christian leaders hoped the pope's expression of regret Sunday would calm tempers and were heartened that some Muslim leaders reacted positively to Benedict's statement.
The leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the Islamic political movement's relations with Christians should remain "good, civilized and cooperative."
"While anger over the pope's remarks was necessary, it shouldn't last for long because while he is the head of the Catholic church in the world, many Europeans are not following it. So what he said won't influence them," Mohammed Mahdi Akef said.
Mohammed Habash, a legislator and head of the Islamic Studies Center in Damascus, Syria, cautioned against sectarian animosities and urged both Muslims and Christians to find ways to avoid conflicts.
"We understand the reasons for the (Muslim) anger, but we do not call for that and instead we call for calm and dialogue," Habash said.
Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Nasser Karimi in Qom, Iran, and Hamza Hendawi and Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.
And the people in an uproar over this are people like General/President Musharraf and the Pakistani parliament, the Turkey's Prime Minister's office and the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (That is certainly no surprise.). These people aren't leaders they are cowards seeking any subject that would lead to exacerbation of hatred toward the world outside of Isalm as a weapon to bind together more and more extremists and call it faith. Interesting combination, Musharraf, the Pakistani Coup President and Palestine's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader that would like to see Israel destroyed. Genocidial. They are men seeking power through mass descension leading to crimes of hate rather than peace.
They aren't leaders. They are people in power that give complete abandon to the cause and effect of their words given their position among Muslim people. They are irresponsible and rather than seeking diplomatic resolve with the Vatican to bring a broader understanding of the issues at hand and a peace between all faiths; they stir the pot and cause anger and hate. They should be held responsible for the violence today of the Arab Street.
There is also the chance these 'entities' of authority know exactly what they are doing. They take the opportunity to turn an academic speech into a political uproar. After all look what politicizing hate has done for men like, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It made him a president. A campaign of hate brought him into leadership in Iran. Who knows what it will bring to a Hamas Prime Minister?
None of these rantings are about faith. It is about hate and the propagation of hate.
