The Vatican pope’s statements made Tuesday in Germany on Islam is snowballing into a new crisis a la Danish Cartoons.
Mahdi Akef of the Muslim Brothers condemned the pope’s statements and requested an official apology. Dozens of demonstrators, mainly from the Islamist-leaning Labor Party, demonstrated at Al-Azhar Mosque today requesting an apology, and calling for banning the pope from entering Arab and Muslim countries till he retracts his remarks.
According to Al-Jazeera, Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi denounced the Vatican pope’s remarks, and so did Pope Shenouda of Egypt who distanced the Coptic church from any similar views.
Sheikh of Al-Azhar, on the other hand, hasn’t made a statement yet.
Statements of condemnation are coming from different parts of the Islamic World, with Pakistani parliament condemning the statement, senior clerics in Iran and Lebanon and Saudi have also made angry statements, and so did moderate Islamist activists.
I seriously think the pope’s statements were stupid, out of context, presenting a serious PR damage to his institution. There should be an official apology, in addition to showing more wisdom in picking his words in the future. And it’s those medieval-like statements that radical Islamists love to hear to confirm their (and the Christian far right’s) views on the “clash of civilizations” shit.
UPDATE: The Vatican issued an apology, that was rejected by the MB and others, amid disturbing reports about attacks against churches in the West Bank and Iraq:
Pope apologizes for Islam remarks
Pope Benedict has said he is sorry for offending Muslims in a speech this week in which he implicitly linked Islam and violence.
The Vatican issued a statement on Saturday saying the pope hoped Muslims would understand the “true sense” of his words.
The statement, issued by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said the pope was “extremely upset” that parts of his speech “were able to sound offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers.”
Bertone added that the comments, which led to protests across the globe, had been interpreted in a way “that does not at all correspond to his intentions”.
“The pope is unequivocally in favor of dialogue between religions and cultures,” he said.
Apology rejected
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, however, said the pope’s apology did not go far enough.
“We want a personal apology [from the pope]. We feel that he has committed a grave error against us and that this mistake will only be removed through a personal apology,” Mohammed Habib, the deputy leader of the organization, said.
“Has he presented a personal apology for statements by which he clearly is convinced? No,” he said.
The pope made remarks in a speech on Tuesday at a German university, in which he quoted from a medieval text which said “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”.
The comments sparked angry protests from the Muslim community.
Demonstrations against the pope were witnessed in the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, India, Egypt and elsewhere.
On Friday thousands marched in the Gaza Strip on Friday waving the green flags of Hamas and chanting praises to “God and his prophet”.
Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, criticized the pope’s comments, saying: “These remarks go against the truth and touch the heart of our faith”.
Two churches in the West Bank and several Christian institutions in Gaza were bombed, causing damage but no casualties.
‘Revenge’ calls
Leading politicians and several prominent Christian and Muslim leaders also criticized the remarks.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, called on Saturday for the pope to apologize for his “unfortunate, ugly” remarks on Islam.
The Iraqi government has also called for calm after a church in Basra was reportedly attacked.
Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin, a hardline cleric linked to Somalia’s powerful Islamist group the Islamic Courts Group, called for Muslims to hunt down and kill the pope for his remarks.
“We call on all Islamic communities across the world to take revenge on the baseless critic called the pope,” he was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
On the subject of relations between Christians and Muslims, you may be interested in a blog whose aim is to publish English translations of analyses and opinions published in the Arabic-language media. The first issue contains translations of five articles from the independent Egyptian media on the underlying reasons for last April’s sectarian violence in Alexandria:
Never though I might one day defend the pope, but I really think the guy did not mean to offend Islam at all. Of course I can see how the quotation is offensive, but he clearly distanced himself from the utterance when he merely quoted. This is not the pope’s statement about Islam, but a thirteenth century emperor’s view of Islam. The pope then used the quote as a prelude to his theological ruminations (which are very intelligent, although I disagree with him philosophically). The point he was really making is that in Christianity God is not transcendent to the categories of “reason” while in Islam he is. That might be a rejected by Muslim (and Christian) scholars as a misunderstanding of Islam. But that is a pretty innocuous misunderstanding and I cannot see how it warrants the fury of the Islamic scholars. I can only attribute this wave of rage to the fact that they misunderstood him, or didn’t read him carefully.
As an atheistic communist I have little particular sympathy for either side here. And what sympathy I do have is pretty much colored by any humanity and/or sincerity I see being extended by any of these true believers to others not ‘of the faith’. That’s about it. Indeed, I do not actually respect willful ignorance or delusion, doggedly adhered-to, in the face of knowledge otherwise.
And so: about the post from the first commentator above…
I don’t know where this guy is coming from, but he has wilfully ignored the obvious truth in this case — apparently in order to make some spurious claim in favor of this vicious, inquisitor pope. Fact is, the medieval quote dredged up out of obscurity to make this pope’s not-so-obscure point in an extremely public setting where it was meant to signal something important, was in fact no mistake at all. It was obviously intended to send a big, fat message to somebody. A lot of somebodies, for that matter.
And so the muslims are quite justified in their outrage here. They’re mostly all being quite reasonable about this, given the circumstances, actually. Indeed — this catholic pot shouldn’t be calling any other religious kettle black either for that matter: given its — and its pontiff’s — own history.
Hell — I’m offended at the Enlightenment/Reason side of this fascist gasbag’s speech.
I think its interesting to see how a stupid comment taken out of context can erupt such anger in people all over the world, but over 50 bodies found dead scattered all over baghdad doesnt even make headline news anymore. Dont get me wrong, I’m a muslim, and one that believes that what the pope said is completely unacceptable, but I truly beleive it was done not out of malicious intent, but out of sheer stupidity. Its true, pope benedict has had a very hard time filling in the shoes of his very prominant and admirable predecessor, and is still struggling with it. His words, I believe, were not meant to offend, but rather taken out of context. He has in fact made an apology to Islam and to all muslims and that needs to be duly noted rather than condemned and deemed ‘insufficient’. What i think however is incredibly important to note, is that the Vatican has been one of the most vocal and loudest voices, and sometimes being the only one to speak out against injustices in Palestine and Lebanon. This also came at a time when there wasnt even a peep out of the arab nations with respect to these injustices, but the vatican condemned israel and its acts of aggression totally. But now after a stupid mistake made by an incoherent pope (who did infact attempt to rectify his mistake with an apology), causes fury and anger all over the muslim world and propogates any extremist or terrorist group to jump on the islamist bandwagon with claims of “revenge against the cross”, only instigating more tension and hatred in the region. Were the vaticans effots done during the war on lebanon and palestine done in vain? I think people need to look at the bigger picture before they make assumptions about comments being ‘sacreligious’.