Pope's Islam comments condemned

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Pope's Islam comments condemned

Postby Amir » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:39 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09 ... eref=yahoo


Pope's Islam comments condemned

POSTED: 9:54 p.m. EDT, September 15, 2006

(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI came under a hail of criticism from the Islamic world Friday for comments he made earlier in the week regarding the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim faith, in some cities provoking street protests.

A growing chorus of Muslim leaders have called on the pope to apologize for the remarks he made in a speech in Germany on Tuesday when he used the terms "jihad" and "holy war."

Friday, Muslim protesters shouted slogans against the pontiff at a rally in Jammu, India. (Watch other Muslims burn the pope in effigy -- 1:41)

A Vatican statement said Benedict was not trying offend Muslims with his remarks.

"It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to ... offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful," said Federico Lombardi, the Vatican press officer.

In response to the pope's speech, Pakistan's National Assembly -- parliament's lower house -- unanimously passed a resolution on Friday condemning his remarks.

The Vatican's ambassador was also summoned to Pakistan's Foreign Office to hear directly the government's displeasure.

"It was underlined that at a time when there was an acute need for promoting inter-faith harmony such remarks, regardless of the context, were very unfortunate," said a statement from Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The ambassador promised to convey Pakistan's sentiments to the pope, the statement said.

In Cairo Friday, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the capital's al-Azhar mosque.

Meanwhile, a youth center run by the Greek Orthodox church in the Gaza Strip was slightly damaged by a small explosion on Friday, witnesses told Reuters.

It was unclear if the blast was connected to the pope's comments.

During his address at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, Benedict quoted 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus.

"God," the emperor, as the pope quoted, said, "is not pleased by blood -- and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature." (Full story)

A transcript of the pope's remarks obtained by The Associated Press television network reads: "In the seventh (sura, or chapter of the Quran), the emperor comes to speak about jihad, holy war.

"The emperor certainly knew that Sura 2, 256, reads: 'No force in matters of faith'. It is one of the early suras, from a time -- as experts say -- in which Mohammed himself was still powerless and threatened.

"However, the emperor of course also knew the requirements about the holy war that were later formulated in the Quran. Without going into details like the handling of the owners of the scriptures, or non-believers, he (the emperor) turned to his interlocutors -- in a surprisingly brusque way -- with the central question after the relationship between religion and violence.

"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.'"

The Organization of the Islamic Conference, in a statement released Thursday, said it "regrets the quotations cited by the pope on the Life of the Honorable Prophet Mohammed, and what he referred to as 'spreading' Islam 'by the sword.'"

"The attribution of the spread of Islam around the world to the shedding of blood and violence, which is 'incompatible with the nature of God' is a complete distortion of the facts, which shows deep ignorance of Islam and Islamic history."

Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohammed Mahdi Akef also expressed anger over the pope's academic speech.

"The pope's statements come to add fuel to fire and trigger anger within the Muslim world and show that the West with its politicians and clerics are hostile to Islam."

Condemnation also came from Turkey where Benedict is scheduled to visit in November.

"His words are extremely regrettable, worrying and unfortunate in terms of the Christian world and common peace of humanity," the Anatolian state news agency quoted Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs, as saying.

"I do not see any use in somebody visiting the Islamic world who thinks in this way about the holy prophet of Islam."

In Syria, the grand mufti, the country's top Sunni Muslim religious authority, sent a letter to the pope saying he feared the pontiff's comments on Islam would worsen interfaith relations, AP reported.

In Gaza City, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya issued a condemnation, saying Benedict's remarks "are not true and defamed the essence of this holy religion and it defamed the history of the Islam."

"We say to the pope to re-examine these comments and to stop defaming the Islam religion that more than 1 and half billion Muslims believe in," said Haniya, who made the remarks after Friday prayers.

Later, thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza, demanding an apology.

In Lebanon, the country's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric demanded the pope personally apologize for insulting Islam.

"We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels ... and ask him (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.

But the Vatican statement said Benedict's discussion on Tuesday was quite to the contrary.

"The Holy Father's desire (is) to cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, including, of course, Islam."

According to Lombardi, Benedict's speech was "a warning, addressed to Western culture, to avoid 'the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom.'"

CNN's Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Postby Emperor_Akihito » Sat Sep 16, 2006 7:19 am

Just like the good old days.
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Postby LOJ » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:14 pm

All the Pope did was to encourage dialect and thought, which is exactly what the Quran teaches as well. It teaches to reflect rather than retaliate. But then again once more it all comes down to blaming the translator or the translation...everything in life is lived according to that one term TRANSLATION. Love is interpreted and either rejected or accepted according to translation, so is virtually every verb in the human language.
The only job we as humans have is to convince ourselves of wanting to be hostile or passive on the days that we are required to make these decisions.

It's just too bad that the synapse of our brain that projects these emotions which thus leads us to these decisions are so easily manipulated.
Because on one hand if they weren't so "contagious" then there would be no such term as "team work" but then again if they weren't so contagious....there wouldn't be so many assinine people in the world.....e.g. Bush:)
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Postby Ahreeman X » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:48 pm

Ey Madar-e Eslam, Ya Zeynab ol Zahra
Dear LorAllah

Image


Ya LorAllah :chadori:

This is Nurollah speaking :hojat:

Allow me to mix Arabic & Arabic rooted Persian in between my English Mo'ezeh! I am sure you loves both!

Well thank you Ayatollah-ette al Udama LorAllah, thank you very much for the sermon & the Islamic Apology (Maleh Keshidan-e Eslami), Islamic Scholarly style! Well thank you, thank you very much…. (Elvis Style with twitched lip)!

[quote]“All the Pope did was to encourage dialect and thought, which is exactly what the Quran teaches as well.â€
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Postby LOJ » Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:21 pm

I'ts nice to see that you're finally using your real pic :badgrin:

I have my ideas on where you were.......you went away and gots yourself married didn't ya sweets?????
Trust me marriage is not it's all cracked up to be...trust me I would know \:D/

Will talk more when the husbands aren't around....
Luvs,
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Postby Amir » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:29 am

It is not my intent to give a lecture on religion here in the news section. I already do enough of that in the “Religionâ€
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Postby vishtasp » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:22 pm

To call these tazi emotional is an understatement...Islam isn't a religion ruled by the brain assuming that brain hasn't been baked in 130 degree heat I swear that's what makes those people insane are they too f*cking cheap to buy air conditioners or what?????
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