Pope faces demand for clear-cut apology

Reuters | September 20, 2006

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict Monday faced a growing chorus of demands for an unequivocal apology for remarks seen as portraying Islam as a violent faith, despite attempts by Western leaders and churchmen to defuse the crisis. Even Washington got involved, with President George W Bush saying the Pope was “sincere” when he said sorry that his words had been misunderstood, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praising the Pope’s “love of humanity."

“We all need to understand that offence can sometimes be taken when perhaps we don’t see it,” Rice told ABC television. But for many Muslims, the Pope’s attempt to explain himself on Sunday did not go far enough and observers were waiting to see if he would speak about it again yesterday at his general audience at the Vatican.

The Pope enraged Muslims in a speech a week ago in Germany quoting 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the Prophet Muhammad brought was evil “such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The leader of the world’s 1.1bn Roman Catholics said on Sunday he was “deeply sorry” for the reaction caused - but stopped short of apologising for his words or retracting them.

In a telegram to the order of an Italian nun killed in Somalia who may be the crisis’ first victim, the Pope hoped her sacrifice would help build “real fraternity among people with reciprocal respect of everyone’s religious convictions”.

But the deluge of criticism and threats continued. Italian media cited a report from Egypt of an Al Qaeda group calling for the German-born Pope, aged 79, to be punished by strict Islamic Shariah law for insulting their religion.

An Al Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq has also vowed war on “worshippers of the cross”.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said at a UN assembly in New York there was “no reason” for alarm in Italy, though local media has reported increased security around the Pope.

Workers at Turkey’s Directorate General for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, petitioned for the arrest of the Pontiff when he makes a scheduled visit to Turkey in November. They held banners saying “Either apologise or don’t come."

The Pope’s comments annoyed the Turkish government but there are no plans yet to cancel the trip.

In Iraq, where an effigy of the Pope was burnt on Monday, parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani called his apology “inadequate and not commensurate with the moral damage caused to Muslims’ feelings”.

The Grand Mufti of the Palestinian Territories, Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, said the Pope must make “a personal and clear apology to 1.5bn Muslims in this world for the insult...”

But the cleric asked for an end to attacks on churches in the area, after seven were vandalised this weekend.

In Italy, politicians and churchmen defended the Pope and said his words were taken out of context and his explanation was quite clear.

Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published it in Arabic on its front page to try to clarify his meaning.

At a meeting in Rome hosted by Mayor Walter Veltroni, Italian Catholic, Jewish and Muslim leaders called for dialogue among the three great monotheistic faiths to ease tension.

Abdallah Redouane, president of the capital’s Islamic cultural centre, said Italy’s Muslim community had accepted the Pope’s apology and considered the episode “a closed chapter”.

“There are no alternatives, either we clash or we have a dialogue,” Redouane said.

Sami Salem, Imam of Rome’s mosque, said religious leaders all had a right to be “proud of their faith but they must be obliged to respect other religions”. Cardinal Paul Poupard, Vatican culture minister and head of the Holy See’s department for inter-religious relations, said all sides must have an ability for “self-criticism”.

While some Muslim clerics say the alleged insults are the latest skirmish in a new Western “crusade” against Islam, some Catholic churchmen say the Pontiff’s words have been purposefully twisted by militant Muslims.

“We pray for the Pope whose words have been maliciously interpreted,” Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe said in Naples at the annual “miracle” of fourth century Saint Gennaro, whose blood turns from powder to liquid in what is seen as a good omen.