Pope Benedict XVI

[Rasputin]

اظهارات اخير پاپ بنديکت شانزدهم، رهبر کاتوليکهای جهان در جمع دانشجويان دانشگاه "رگنزبورگ" آلمان، نه تنها موجب اعتراض مسلمانان در گوشه و کنار جهان، بلکه باعث شگفتی مسيحيان نيز شده است، تا جايی که حتی برخی نزديکان وی نيز از گفتههای پاپ ابراز ناخشنودی کردهاند.
ولی آگاهان سياستهای محافظهکارانه واتيکان و آشنايان ديدگاههای سنتگرايانه کاردينال "جوزف راتزينگر" که اينک در جايگاه پاپ اعظم قرار دارد، کمتر از اظهارات او بهشگفت آمدهاند. هر چند آنها نيز چنين سخنانی را در موقعيت و زمان کنونی به دور از بصيرت و نامناسب ارزيابی میکنند.

پاپ طی روزهای اخير از سخنان خود که موجب آزرده خاطر کردن مسلمانان شده، ابراز تأسف کرده و جهان اسلام را بهگفتگويی صادقانه دعوت کرده است.

در این مقطع، نگاهی به ديدگاه وی بهعنوان رهبر مسيحيان کاتوليک جهان و نيز بررسی پيشينه تاريخی سنت های تعامل و تقابل مسيحيان و مسلمانان بيش از پيش ضروری مینمايد.

ديدگاههای کاردينال راتزينگر

در زمانی که کاردينال جوزف راتزينگر رياست "شورای عقيدتی کليسای کاتوليک" و سرپرستی امور آرشيو عظيم پروندهها و صورتجلسههای دادگاههای تفتيش عقايد واتيکان را به عهده داشت، پايبندی بیچون و چرای او به ارزشهای کليسای کاتوليک و پا فشاری وی بر معيارهای سختگيرانه واتيکان، زبانزد خاص و عام بود.

انعطاف ناپذيری او بارها از سوی کسانی چون "هانس کونگ"، متکلم مسيحی و مدرس دانشگاه های سوئيس و "ایگین درومان"، متکلم مسيحی کاتوليک و روانکاو آلمانی مورد انتقاد قرار گرفت. انتقادهای شديد اين دو سرانجام موجب طرد آنان از کليسای کاتوليک و لغو مجوز تدريس در دانشکده الهيات مسيحی شد.


رویه پاپ
کاردينال راتزينگر در گذشته با طرفداران "الهيات رهايیبخش" کليسای کاتوليک آمريکای لاتين که پشتيبان مبارزه عليه ديکتاتوریهای راست و چپ اين سرزمين ها بودند، شديداً مخالفت کرده است.

کاردينال راتزينگر نه تنها در گذشته با طرفداران "الهيات رهايیبخش" کليسای کاتوليک آمريکای لاتين که پشتيبان مبارزه عليه ديکتاتوریهای راست و چپ اين سرزمين ها بودند، شديداً مخالفت میکرد، بلکه همانند سلف خود درخواست شمارِ عظيمی از مسيحيان را که همواره خواهان برگزاری آئين مشترک عشاء ربانی مسيحيان کاتوليک و پروتستان بودند نپذيرفت.

حتی زمانی که "پاپ ژان پل دوم"، رهبر پيشين کاتوليکهای جهان، در سال ۱۹۹۸ ميلادی خواستار گشايش آرشيو واتيکان برای استفاده مورخان و محققان شد تا حداقل بخشی از تاريخ سر به مهر کليسای کاتوليک گشوده شود، کاردينال راتزينگر، بهعنوان کليددار اين آرشيو، حاضر نشد پروندههای مربوط بهمباحث "بحران مدرنيسم در کليسای کاتوليک" و "الهيات رهايیبخش" را در دسترس پژوهشگران قرار دهد.

او دادخواهیهای روحانيان منتقد و تجديد نظرخواه را که از کليسای کاتوليک طرد شده بودند را مسدود گذاشت، چنانکه هنوز پرونده کشيشانی که اصل «عزوبت و تجرد روحانيان کاتوليک» را رعايت نکردهاند همچنان سربه مهر است.

بههر حال، بهدشواری میتوان تصور کرد که نظراتی که کاردينال چوزف راتزينگر در زمان رياست بر "شورای عقيدتی کليسای کاتوليک" بدون هيچگونه انعطاف و تسامحی بر آنها تأکيد داشت و همچنين نقش و نفوذی که او در هنگام سرپرستی آرشيو واتيکان در مباحث عقيدتی اعمال میکرد، امروزه که او زعامت کليسای کاتوليک را عهدهدار شده است، دچار دگرگونی بنيادی شده باشد.


نفوذ راتزینگر
کاردينال راتزينگر بسيار پيشتر از آنکه در واتيکان بر جايگاه رهبر کاتوليکهای جهان تکيه زند، مرد قدرتمند و با نفوذ کليسای کاتوليک بود.

مردِ قدرتمند کليسا و "دستيار حقيقت"

بايد دانست که کاردينال راتزينگر بسيار پيشتر از آنکه در واتيکان بر جايگاه رهبر کاتوليکهای جهان تکيه زند، مرد قدرتمند و با نفوذ کليسای کاتوليک بود و بدون نظر و خواست او تصميمی درباره سياستهای کلان کليسا اتخاذ نمیشد.

او که در سال ۱۹۸۱ ميلادی به واتيکان خوانده شد تا در درجه اول مسئوليت مراقبت از آرشيو اسناد چند صد ساله کليسای کاتوليک را بر عهده گيرد، همواره و با اشتياق و افتخار بسيار خود را "دستيار حقيقت" میخواند و بر "حقانيت مطلق کليسای کاتوليک" پا میفشرد.

راتزينگر تحصيلات عالی خود را در الهيات مسيحی و فلسفه بهپايان رسانده است و مطالعات گستردهای در زمينههای گوناگون و متنوع فرهنگی و فلسفی دارد؛ از آن جمله در آثار داستايوسکی، تئودور اشتاين بوشر، مارتين هايدگر، کارل ياسپرس و ديگران.

او در سی و يک سالگی، يکی از جوانترين اساتيد دانشگاههای آلمان بود و نزديک به بيست سال در رشتههای الهيات و فلسفه بهتدريس اشتغال داشت. او را بهجرات میتوان روحانی انديشمندی با استقلال فکر و ديدگاههايی شديداً سنتگرايانه خواند.

در مناظرهای که راتزينگر يک سال پيش از انتخابش بهرهبری کليسای کاتوليک با يورگن هابرماس، فيلسوف معاصر آلمانی داشت، بهخوبی میتوان اشراف او را بر مسايل فلسفی مشاهده کرد. در همين گفتوگوست که وی با تکيه و تایيد بر اين نکته که خرد به مرزهای خود رسيده، معتقد است که "عقلانيت بايد بياموزد که نيازمند دين است".

حال، بازگو کردن نقلِ قولی از مانوئل پالايولوگوس دوم، يکی از آخرين فرمانروايان امپراتوری روم شرقی (بيزانس) درباره پيامبر اسلام نيز گرچه بیارتباط با مسايل روز جهان نبوده و جنبه هشداردهنده داشته است، اما در واقع ريشه در پيشينه تاريخی اختلافات هزار ساله مسيحيان و مسلمانان دارد. سابقه اين اختلافات بسيار طولانی تر از دوران محاصره قسطنطنيه توسط مسلمانان در سالهای پايانی قرن چهاردهم ميلادی است.

پيشينه اختلاف مسيحيان و مسلمانان

اختلافات و رقابتها و درگيریهای مسيحيان و مسلمانان در اروپا در اوايل قرن هشتم ميلادی آغاز شد. يعنی در دورانی که تنش ميان مسيحيان اروپا و مسلمانان شدت گرفته بود و مسيحيان، باقيمانده تمدن روم شرقی و کليسای روم را در خطر نابودی میديدند.


پیشینه اختلاف مسیحیت و اسلام
اختلافات و رقابتها و درگيریهای مسيحيان و مسلمانان در اروپا در اوايل قرن هشتم ميلادی آغاز شد. يعنی در دورانی که تنش ميان مسيحيان اروپا و مسلمانان شدت گرفته بود و مسيحيان، باقيمانده تمدن روم شرقی و کليسای روم را در خطر نابودی میديدند.

در سال ۷۳۲ ميلادی شارل مارتل پس از متحد کردن فرانکها، اعراب مسلمان را در نبردی ميان پواتيه و تور شکست داد و از پيشروی آنان بهسوی اروپای مرکزی جلوگيری کرد. "اسطوره نبرد پواتيه"هنوز نقطهی عطفی در تاريخ کليسا بهشمار میآيد.

در صورتی که مورخان اسلامی برای اين جنگ که آنرا "بلاط الشهداء" مینامند و بهسرکردگی عبدالرحمان غافقی، حاکم مسلمان اندلس بهوقوع پيوست، اهميت کمتری قائل بودهاند. در هر حال، شکست مسلمانان، پيشروی سپاه اعراب را در خاک فرانسه و اروپا متوقف ساخت.

از قرن هفتم تا اواخر قرن هفدهم ميلادی، يعنی بيش از هزار سال، مغربزمين با نگاهی خصمآلود به اسلام و مسلمانان مینگريست.

پيداست که جنگهای بیشمار ميان مسيحيان و مسلمانان بهعمق خصومتها و پيشداوریها ميان پيروان اين دو آئين ابراهيمی افزود.

محاصره شهر وين توسط سپاهيان ترک عثمانی در سال ۱۶۸۳ ميلادی يادآور آخرين نبرد خونين ميان مسيحيان و مسلمان است.

سنت تعامل و سنت تقابل با اسلام

در اواخر سده هفده ميلادی بهتدريج چرخشی در ديدگاه اروپائيان نسبت بهاسلام بوجود آمد. در اين دوران دو سنت کاملاً متفاوت در برخورد با اسلام پديد آمد: سنت تعامل و سنت تقابل با اسلام.

متفکران اروپايی و نخبگان وابسته به کليسا برای آشنايی با اسلام دست به ترجمه کتاب مقدس مسلمانان و تحقيق در زندگی پيامبر اسلام زدند.

يکی از نخستين ترجمههای قرآن در سال ۱۶۴۷ منتشر شد. از سوی ديگر ترجمهای نيز در زمان پاپ اينوکنتيوس يازدهم بهزبان لاتين در سال ۱۶۹۸ منتشر شد که بيشتر بهمنظور مقابله عقيدتی با اسلام صورت گرفت. لودوويکو ماراچی، مترجم اين روايت از قرآن، صفحاتی را نيز بهشرح زندگی پيمبر اسلام ونقد تعاليم وی اختصاص داد.

البته از قرآن ترجمههای بسياری بهاغلب زبانهای اروپايی صورت گرفته که نخستين آنها ترجمهای است بهزبان لاتين که "روبرت فون کتون" انگليسی بهسفارش راهب بزرگ "پتروس ونرابليس" بهانجام رساند و در سال ۱۱۳۴ ميلادی (۵۳۸ هجری قمری) در اسپانيا منتشر شد.

در آستانهی سده هجده ميلادی نيز اثری دانشنامهای با عنوان "فرهنگ تاريخی انتقادی" نوشته پیير بِل منتشر شد که در آن تصويری ناهنجار از پيامبر اسلام بهدست داده بود.

ترجمه اين کتاب در سرزمينهای آلمانیزبان نيز رواج بسيار يافت. تا جايی که وولفگانگ گوته نيز در "حقيقت و مجاز" يادآور میشود که در ايام نوجوانی اين کتاب را در کتابخانهی پدرش مطالعه کرده و "در هزارتوی آن محو و گم شده است".

تقريباً همزمان با کتاب بِل، اثر معروف بارتلمی اربِلو بهنام "کتابخانهی شرقی" در فرانسه منتشر شد. نويسنده در اين کتاب از يک سو اطلاعات و آگاهیهای بسياری از سرزمينهای شرق مسلمان بهدست میدهد، اما از سوی ديگر بهوضوح پيداست که اثر او با پيشداوریهای رايج درباره اسلام آميخته شده است.

انتشار کتاب "دين محمد" نوشته آدريان رلاند، شرق شناس هلندی وعالم الهيات پروتستان، در سال ۱۷۰۵ و همچنين ترجمه انگليسی جورج سال از قرآن در سال ۱۷۳۴ ميلادی، نقطهی عطفی در ارزيابی مثبت زندگی پيامبر و دين اسلام در اروپا بود.

اين دو محقق در آثار خود پيش از هر چيز و شايد برای نخستين بار توجه اروپائيان را بهنقاط اشتراک مسيحيت و اسلام جلب نمودند.

اِنری کنت دِ بولنويليه نيز در کتاب خود با عنوان "حيات محمد" که در سال ۱۷۳۰ ميلادی و پس از مرگش در هلند منتشر شد بهمدافعه استدلالی از بنيانگذار دين اسلام پرداخت. او در اين اثر با تحسين از پيامبر اسلام که توانسته است تعاليم يکتاپرستی را هند تا اسپانيا گسترش دهد ياد میکند.

نمايشنامه ولتر درباره زندگی پيامبر اسلام

شگفت آنکه در ميان آثار ولتر، "فيلسوف روشنگری"، نمايشنامهای منظوم يافت میشود که نخستين بار در سال ۱۷۴۱ بهنمايش درآمد. ولتر در اين اثر، همانند کتاب های کسانی چون هامفری پريدو و پیير بِل، و با پيروی از آنان تصويری منفی از شخصيت پيامبر اسلام بهدست داده است.

جالب آنکه وولفگانگ گوته بهرغم علاقهای که به آثار ولتر داشت، بهاجبار و اکراه و بهخواست دوک کارل آوگوست حاکم وقت ساکسن و وايمار گردن نهاد و ناگزير شد متن نمايشنامه ولتر را در سال ۱۸۰۲ ميلادی بهآلمانی ترجمه کند. او که همواره ناخرسندی خود را از ترجمهی نمايشنامه ولتر پنهان نمیکرد، خود نمايشنامهای بر اساس زندگی پيامبر اسلام نوشت که درست نقطه مقابل برداشت ولتر از اسلام بود.

ظاهراً ولتر که با تعصب و خرافات شديداً مخالف بود، اين نمايشنامه را کلاً بهانهای برای انتقاد از کليسای کاتوليک قرار داد. اما از آنجا که از واکنش کليسا هراس داشت، با بیانصافی، بهتحريف زندگی پيامبر و قلب ديانت اسلام پرداخت.

گرچه وی بعدها و پس از مطالعهی کتاب "حيات محمد" نوشتهی اِنری کنت دِ بولنويليه، تحت تأثير اين اثر قرار گرفت و در رسالهای که در سال ۱۷۵۶ منتشر کرد، بهستايش از پيامبر اسلام پرداخت و از او، در کنار کنفوسيوس و زرتشت، بهعنوان "يکی از بزرگترين قانونگذاران جهان" نام برد.

[Rasputin]

Marksmen on hand as Pope says prayer

THE Pope was protected by marksmen as he said a traditional prayer at his summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, yesterday.

Italian police were on heightened alert as the Vatican tried to defuse an unprecedented row with the Muslim world over Pope Benedict's controversial remarks on Islam.
In Rome, visitors to St Peter's Basilica, who already need to go through metal detectors, faced the added inconvenience of random bag searches.

The Vatican and Castel Gandolfo, in the hills south of Rome, were both declared no-flying zones.

A wave of protest erupted among Muslims across the globe after the pope last week implicitly linked Islam to violence and quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said innovations introduced by the Prophet Mohammed were "evil and inhuman".

An Italian Interior Ministry memo urged police to step up security around the Vatican, churches and other potential targets and to focus their investigations on Islamic extremist groups in Italy.

The alert was fuelled by a statement posted over the internet yesterday by an Iraqi cell of al-Qaida calling for a holy war against the West because of the Pope's remarks.

Three Italian nuns were evacuated from the Islamist-held Somali capital Mogadishu to Kenya after the weekend murder of one of their colleagues.

In Sydney, Archbishop George Pell said the reaction of Muslims to the Pope's speech showed the link in Islam between religion and violence. "The violent reactions in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict's main fears," he said. "They showed the link for many Islamists between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and actual violence.

"Our major priority must be to maintain peace and harmony within the Australian community, but no lasting achievements can be grounded in fantasies and evasions."

Dr Pell said it was a "sign of hope" that no organised violence had flared in Australia after the Pope's comments.

[Rasputin]

Possible pope link to nun's death

MOGADISHU, Somalia- Gunmen shot and killed an Italian nun at a children's hospital in Mogadishu on Sunday in an attack that drew immediate speculation of links to Muslim anger over the pope's recent remarks on Islam.

The Catholic nun's bodyguard also died in the latest attack apparently aimed at foreign personnel in volatile Somalia.

The assassinations were a blow to Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers' attempt to prove they have pacified one of the world's most lawless cities since chasing out warlords in June.

The bodyguard died instantly, but the nun was rushed into an operating theatre at the hospital after the shooting.

"After serious injuries, she died in the hospital treatment room," doctor Ali Mohamed Hassan told Reuters.

"She was shot three times in the back."

Details of the incident at the so-called SOS hospital in north Mogadishu were sketchy. But one suspect was quickly arrested by Islamist militiamen who control the capital, witnesses near the scene said.

A high-level Islamist source told Reuters the attack may well be linked to the controversy over Pope Benedict's recent remarks about holy wars, which have been taken by many Muslims as an attempt to portray their religion as innately violent.

"SOS hospital is assisted by the Catholic Church and the slain aid worker was a nun," the source said. "There is a very high possibility the people who killed her were angered by the Catholic Pope's recent comments against Islam."

Litany of killings
Borne out of local courts practicing strict sharia law, the Islamist movement in June seized Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords who had run it for the past 15 years.

The Islamists have brought some order to the capital, which was awash with guns and where assassinations were common. But the nun's death -- and the June killing of a Swedish cameraman -- will damage their claim Mogadishu is now safe for foreigners.

Critics of the Islamists say they harbor al Qaeda-linked extremists in their ranks. The top Islamist leader, hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on U.S. and U.N. lists of people accused of links to terrorism.

The Islamists deny that, saying the West does not understand them and is succumbing to U.S. propaganda.

Bedri Hashi, an information officer for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), said the killing may have been an attempt by enemies of the Islamists to hurt their image.

"I believe this attack was orchestrated by people who want to discredit the Islamic Courts," he told Reuters.

The Italian nun, whose name could not be immediately confirmed, was the latest in a litany of foreign aid workers and other international staff to be killed in Somalia during its recent, violent past.

The most high-profile recent killing was of Swedish cameraman Martin Adler in June during an Islamist rally.

Another Italian aid worker, Annalena Tonelli, was shot dead in the self-declared enclave of Somaliland in 2003.

Although the Islamists have managed to get guns off the streets and bring down roadblocks often run by young, erratic militiamen loyal to warlords, Mogadishu remains full of weapons and tensions are high.

The Islamists are engaged in a political standoff with the Western-backed interim government of Somalia which is based in Baidoa and has little military muscle of its own.

[Rasputin]

Pope's comments on Islam hit 'civilization clash' fault line

The reaction to Pope Benedict XVI's comments this week, drawing on sources who argued that there is something inherently irrational about Islam that can lead to violence, underscores the current depth of religious sensitivities - ones that extremists are quick to exploit.
To millions of Muslims, Pope Benedict's words fit into a centuries-old tradition of rhetorical attacks designed to harm their faith. But to many in the West, the violent sectarian reaction by extremists in Palestinian territories, Iraq, and elsewhere indicated that the pope had a point.

The ensuing controversy demonstrates the spread of what could be called "Clash of Civilizations" thinking that serves the interests of violent extremists, experts say, as it provides an opportunity to advocate for their worldview. Central to the thinking of Al Qaeda is their claim that jihad is a response to what they consider 1,000 years of Christian persecution that poses an existential threat to all Muslims.

With extremists successfully exploiting popular anger over comments like the pope's or at cartoons critical of Islam, this fringe view has moved closer to the center, often undermining more-moderate views, analysts say.

"Arabs and Muslims feel oppressed by the West. Afghanistan and Iraq are features, but most important is Palestine ... and all of this built-up anger then sometimes explodes,'' says Abdel Wahab al-Messiri, an Islamist thinker and professor in Cairo. "The anger at the West can't be expressed through the popular channels because of their own regimes, so they wait for something like cartoons or the pope's comments and their totalitarian governments can't stop them because that would be something un-Islamic."

Many prominent Muslim leaders like the Muslim Brotherhood's Mahdi Akef and Yusuf Qaradawi, an influential television preacher based in Qatar, have urged Muslims not to react with violence. The Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman at first said the pope's expression was sufficient, and then later backtracked and demanded a stronger apology. The group may have been responding to popular anger, and seeking to surf with it rather than go against it, analysts say.

Mr. Qaradawi, on Al Jazeera Sunday, urged Muslims to protest Friday "to express their anger in a peaceful and rational manner." Qaradawi also linked the pope's comments to President Bush's recent statement that America is at war with "Islamic Fascists," saying the pope is "giving international cover" for Bush.

Mr. Messiri agrees with what is a widely held view in the region. "It was a bit opportunistic for the pope. He sees the war on terror going on and he wants to jump on the bandwagon and infuse some life into the church,'' says Messiri. "His comments exposed some ignorance. There are many rational schools in Islam. Many Muslims find concepts like the trinity and incarnation irrational."

Pope Benedict has since sought to calm the furor, saying he was "deeply sorry" that anyone took offense and that he didn't share the views of the 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel Palaeologus, whom he quoted as saying the only new things Muhammad brought to the world were "evil and inhuman."

On the topic of jihad, the pope also quoted a scholar, Theodore Khoury, as saying the Greek influence left a strong rational strain in Christianity, and this leads to a rejection of propagating the religion by force. This is contrasted with injunctions in the Koran concerning holy war. Carrying on Mr. Khoury's point, the pope said: "For Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound with any of our categories, even that of rationality."

The pope has since explained that he ardently wants dialogue between the religions. But his choice of figures to quote, at least, was provocative. At the time Manuel wrote the passage, he was urging European powers to help defend Constantinople from the expanding Ottoman Muslims.

Al Qaeda formally refers to itself as the "Global Front for Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews" and its propaganda seeks to convince Muslims that there is a new, US-led crusade against Islam.

While still only a small minority of Muslims buy into this worldview, their visibility has seemed to grow recently. On Monday, the Mujahidin Shura Council, the chief mouthpiece for Al Qaeda in Iraq, said Bush was leading a "new crusade" and, addressing the pope, said: "We will destroy the cross... then all that will be accepted will be conversion or [death]."

Most Muslim doctrine rejects conversion by force, but some of the schools of the fundamentalist Salafy brand of the faith call for the execution of people who reject the faith. Others call for the murder of those deemed to insult the religion.

While outbreaks of rage were limited, they were a measure of the fact that some people respond to this kind of intolerant thinking. Over the past two days, seven churches in the Palestinian territories suffered arson attacks, a nun in Somalia was murdered in an attack that wire services speculated was linked to the pope's comments, and the pope was burned in effigy in Pakistani Kashmir and in Basra, Iraq.

Also distinctly uneasy were Christian leaders in the Arab world. In Egypt, where up to 10 percent of the people are Copts, a branch of Orthodox Christianity, leaders said they feared the pope's remarks would spur on extremists, which have been involved in a number of attacks on churches in recent years.

Coptic leader Pope Shenouda called on Pope Benedict to apologize in a more forthright manner. "I hope the remarks will not undermine interfaith dialogue,'' he said at press conference. "He knows exactly what he needs to do."

[Rasputin]

Muslim anger still simmering after pope's mea culpa (Roundup)

The front page of today's newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" Monday, 18 September 2006, is dedicated to the pope's Angelus prayer from yesterday with translations into English, Arabic and French. The Italian headline reads "My speech at the university of Regensburg was and is an invitation for a free and serious dialogue, with great mutual respect". EPA/OSSERVATORE ROMANO



Pope's Benedict's apology Sunday for the offence caused by his recent remarks about Islam appeared Monday to have done little to quell the anger of many Muslims.


Though some Muslims welcomed Benedict's 'correction,' many prominent Islamic intellectuals said the pope's apology, which fell short of the full retraction called for in some parts, did not go far enough.

Meanwhile, isolated street protests over the pope's comments, in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor referring to elements of the Muslim faith as 'evil and inhuman,' continued.

In Iraq, Shiite Muslims in the southern city of Basra burned German flags while an Iraq cell of the al-Qaeda terrorist network called on the internet for jihad (holy war) against the 'worshippers of the cross.'

The threat prompted the Italian Interior Ministry to instruct police to step up security around the Vatican, churches and other potential targets and to focus their investigations on Islamic extremist groups present in Italy.

For the first time since the row erupted, the head of the Islamic Association of China, Chen Guangyuan, weighed in on the debate Monday saying the pope had 'badly hurt' the feelings of China's estimated 20 million Muslims and demanding that he retract his words and apologize fully.

Images of the pope were burnt in Pakistan while in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Benedict's remarks were the latest instalment in a US-led anti-Muslim conspiracy, which also included the invasion of Iraq and publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

In Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest political party, and pro-government lawmakers on Monday deemed 'insufficient' the pope's mea culpa and also demanded an 'unequivocal apology.'

In Somalia, the murder of an Italian nun, apparently over Benedict's remarks, has sparked major concerns for the security of Catholic missionaries in Muslim countries while Christian leaders in the Palestinian territories were seeking to ease tensions there after the firebombing of several churches.

A commentator with the semi-official Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram wrote of 'constant insults being flung at Muslims,' which showed that the 'Western philosophers of evil had been successful in making Islam the new enemy after the break-up of the former Soviet Union.'

The direction of the Oxford Cross Cultural Research Institute, Sheikh Riad Hanif Nadwi, also accused the pope of further insulting Muslims by suggesting in his apology they had misunderstood his speech.

'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,' the pope had said Sunday by way of apology prayers at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.

'The true meaning of my address in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue,' he added.

'To suggest that Muslims had misunderstood this complicated philosophical discussion is condescending at best,' said Sheikh Nadwi who deemed the pope's comments particularly damaging 'as they are recognized by millions of Christians as infallible.'

Meanwhile in Rome, while some seasoned Vatican watchers were standing by the pope's comments, many Vatican experts appeared to regard the speech - apparently portraying Islam as a religion that implicitly endorses violence - as a mistake.

'The West's relation with Islam is the most delicate issue facing our time. It is precisely for this reason that a religious leader like the pope should be very careful about what he says,' Marco Politi, one of Italy's most respected papal watchers, told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa.

Politi noted that Benedict's remarks represented a 'change of tack' compared to the strategy of his predecessor, the late John Paul II, who actively engaged in dialogue with other faiths.

In the Muslim world also, Pope John Paul was being fondly remembered as a 'more tolerant' figure.

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arab- language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, said: 'It looks as if the new pope does not desire this friendly cohabitation (propagated by John Paul) with other faiths, particularly with Muslims.'

[Rasputin]

Muslim protestors demand better apology from pope

An Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI
on Monday that he and the West were doomed, as protesters raged across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes Al-Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified.

The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as the worshipper of the cross saying you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword.

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay a head tax to
safeguard their lives if conquered by Muslims. They are exempt if they convert to Islam.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, meanwhile, shops, businesses and schools shut
down in response to a strike call by the head of a hard-line Muslim separatist leader to denounce Benedict. For the third day running, people burned tires and shouted Down with the pope.

Protests also broke out in Iraq, where angry demonstrators burned an effigy of the pope in Basra, and in Indonesia, where more than 100 people rallied in front of the heavily guarded Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, waving banners that said the Pope is building religion on hatred.

The pope on Sunday said he was deeply sorry about the angry reaction to his speech last week in which he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of Islams Prophet Muhammad as evil and inhuman and referred to spreading Islam by the sword.

Benedict said the remarks came from a text that didnt reflect his own opinion.

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, he said during his weekly appearance before pilgrims in Italy.

The statement of regret the popes second in two days helped ease some tensions.

In Turkey, where outrage against Benedicts remarks had been swift, Catholic bishops decided Monday that no changes were necessary in his upcoming visit in November his first to a Muslim country, Vatican spokesman George Marovic said.
Marovic said the trip was expected to go on as planned, and the bishops had discussed the details of a religious ceremony the pontiff is to lead in Istanbul.

However, State Minister Mehmet Aydin, who oversees the religious affairs in Turkey, said he expected Turkish authorities to cancel the visit if Benedict does not offer a full apology.

We are expecting the authorities to unilaterally cancel this visit. The popes coming to Turkey isnt going to foment the uniting of civilizations, but a clash of civilizations, he said.

The secretary-general of the Turkish HUKUK-DER law association submitted a request to the Justice Ministry asking that the pope be arrested upon entering Turkey.

The appeal by Fikret Karabekmez, a former legislator for the banned pro-Islamic Welfare Party, called for Benedict to be tried under several Turkish laws, among them obstruction of freedom of belief, encouraging discrimination based on religion, and inciting religious hatred.

A prosecutor in the ministry will evaluate the request and decide whether to open a case.

Angry reactions also persisted in other corners of the Muslim world, where many demanded more of an apology by the pope than Sundays statement of regret.
Muslims have all this while felt oppressed, and the statement by the pope saying he is sorry about the angry reaction is inadequate to calm the anger more so because he is the highest leader of the Vatican, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

More than 200 Muslims staged a sit-in at a shrine in Damascus, Syria, heeding a call by the Damascus office of Irans spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A statement issued by the office urged the pope to openly and plainly apologize for his remarks.

Protesters also rallied in the city of Muzaffarabad, in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. His apology is not sufficient because he did not say that what he said was wrong, said Uzair Ahmed of Pasban-e-Hurriyat, a Pakistani political group.

Moroccos King Mohammed VI sent a letter to the Vatican in which he implored Benedict to show the same respect for Islam that you have for the other religions, Moroccan media reported. Morocco withdrew its ambassador to the Vatican over the weekend.

Even in China, where the government exerts tight controls over religious activities, a top religious official said Benedict had insulted the nations Muslims.

This has gravely hurt the feelings of the Muslims across the world, including those from China, Chen Guangyuan, president of Islamic Association of China, was quoted as saying in an interview with the Xinhua news agency.

In the Middle East, where Muslims threw firebombs at seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend, Christian leaders posted guards outside some churches.

We are afraid, said Sonia Kobatazi, a Christian Lebanese, after Mass at the Maronite Christian St. George Cathedral in Beirut, Lebanon, where about a dozen policemen carrying automatic weapons stood guard.

[Rasputin]

Cheapening of the word

None of this religious row should be earth-shattering for anyone, Christian or Muslim .



By M.Shirazi

[Rasputin]

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[Rasputin]

Iranian leader urges more papal protests

Al-Qaeda in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam.
Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict's statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope.

Islamic leaders around the world issued more condemnations of the pope's comments, but some moderates in the Middle East appeared to be trying to put a damper on the outrage, fearing it could spiral into attacks on Christians in the region.

On Sunday, Benedict said he was "deeply sorry" over any hurt caused by his comments made in a speech last week, in which he quoted a medieval text characterizing some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" and calling Islam a religion spread by the sword.

Benedict said the remarks came from a text that didn't reflect his own opinion, but he did not retract what he said or say he was sorry he uttered what proved to be explosive words.

The Vatican on Monday sought to defuse the anger, ordering papal representatives around the world to meet with leaders of Muslim countries to explain the pope's point of view and full context of his speech.

Roman Catholic leaders stepped forward to defend the pontiff. At an Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini underlined the bishops' "total closeness and solidarity to the pope" and said they deplored interpretations of the pope's comments "which attribute to the Holy Father ... errors that he has not committed and aim at attacking his person and his ministry."

Few in the Islamic world were satisfied by Benedict's statement of regret.

"The pope's words have caused a deep wound in the hearts of Muslims that won't heal for a long time, and then only after a clear apology to Muslims," Egypt's religious affairs minister, Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, wrote in a column in the government daily Al-Ahram on Monday.

An influential Egyptian cleric, Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, called for protests after weekly prayers on Friday, but maintained they should be peaceful.

Extremists said the pope's comments proved that the West was in a war against Islam.

al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross," saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the 'jizya' tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (being killed by) the sword."

Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay the "jizya" tax, though those who convert are exempt. The tax, sometimes called a head tax, has not been imposed in Muslim nations in about 100 years, though Islamic militant groups have tried to force non-Muslims to pay it on a local level in some countries.

"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."

"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome."

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States. He argued that while the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an "excuse for suppressing Muslims" by depicting them as terrorists.

"Those who benefit from the pope's comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests," he said, referring to the United States.

The anger recalled the outrage earlier this year over cartoons depicting the prophet published by a Danish paper. The caricatures, which Muslims saw as insulting Muhammad, set off large, violent protests across the Islamic world.

So far, protests over the pope's comments have been smaller. However, there has been some violence: Attackers hurled firebombs at seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the weekend, and a nun was shot to death in Somalia.

Some 200 Khamenei loyalists in the Syrian capital, Damascus, held a protest Monday at an Islamic shrine, dismissing the pope's apology. "The pope's sorrow was equivocal," read one banner.

Dozens protested outside the Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and schools and shops in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir shut their doors in protest.

"His comments really hurt Muslims all over the world," Umar Nawawi of the radical Islamic Defenders' Front said in Jakarta. "We should remind him not to say such things which can only fuel a holy war."

Islamic countries also asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance. Malaysia's foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said Benedict's apology was "inadequate to calm the anger."

In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood said the anger should not be allowed to hurt ties with the Middle East's Christian minorities. But worries among Christians in the region are high.

Guards have been posted around some churches, and the head of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, disassociated himself from Benedict's statements.

The Dominican mission in Cairo also criticized Benedict's words, saying he chose a text for his speech that "revived the polemics of the past."

"These comments, seen by many Muslims as hurtful, risk encouraging extremists on all sides," it said in a statement, "and put in danger all the advances in dialogue made in recent decades."

[Rasputin]

Pope Benedict XVI and Islam

Pope Benedict XVI has had a free ride so far. Back when there were still Protestant anti-Catholics, some would have found much fault with him, but most appreciated his encyclical on divine and human love and said so. Many Catholics and non-Catholics whose friends suffered under him as Cardinal Ratzinger now empathetically choose to help the wounded nurse their bruises. Some among the Catholic right even think he should be more of a hard-liner.

For all those reasons, it is regrettable that in the midst of a well-worked out (of course) formal speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany, his old academic turf, the pope lapsed for a moment and did what we tenured folk sometimes do--and remember, the pope has lifetime tenure--we come up with an allusion that gets us in trouble, let a side point take center stage or fail to count the cost of a remark. So it was that almost inexplicably the pope began his talk in Regensburg with inflaming words from an obscure Byzantine emperor from the 14th Century to show that jihad as holy war is bad. That emperor, through this pope, said that what the Prophet Muhammad brought to the world was "only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Like Christians often did? The pope did not mention that.

His Holiness must have underestimated how useful such words would be to extreme fight-picking Muslim clerics and right-wing American talk-show folk. He now says that he did not intend to offend Muslims, but his plea for "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today" will be set back and outshouted by those clerics and rightists. What sounds at least half appropriate in a history and theology classroom sounds different when spread to a billion Christians and a billion Muslims, as words such as these will be. The only thing that will be remembered from the pope's new call for reason and dialogue is the unreasonable and monological citation that Muhammad contributed only "evil and inhuman" speech and action in human history.

I know I'll get hit for suggesting "equivalencies" here, though I am always clear in stating that there is no equivalency between today's radical and extreme Muslims and today's ordinary Christians. But it also must be said that Christians, from the 4th Century to the 18th Century, can match the Muslims one-for-one when it comes to having spread the faith with the sword. Read the history of the Christianization of Europe, and you have to go hunting for that minority of the faithful who spread the faith without the sword, merely by witness and works.

We live today not in the time of Christian Crusades and Inquisitions, but in a time when the pope is needed as a bridge-builder, a linkmaker. Having quoted claims seven centuries old that only "evil and inhuman" things were new in the program of the prophet and in the name of Islam, it will be harder for the pope to have dialogue with the Muslims who do good and human things. Some on the Muslim and American right seem to be craving a war of civilizations, a war about which we know only one thing: Both sides (or the many sides) would lose.

Rather than point to the "evil and inhuman" nature of Islam's, Judaism's, Christianity's, Hinduism's, Buddhism's and other holy wars, the pope will serve better if he can still find dialogue partners in search of the good and human.

All is not lost. Yet.

[Rasputin]

Bad words, worse reaction

POPE BENEDICT XVI should never have included an anti-Islamic quotation by a Byzantine emperor in a speech last week. But his words were not an excuse to burn churches and otherwise harass Christians, as a few Muslims did in response. The pope has said he's sorry. That should be sufficient for Muslim leaders to begin a dialogue about how to promote fair treatment for both creeds.

The previous pope, John Paul II, soughtto address Muslims in a conciliatory way.The chief implementer of that policy, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, has been demoted. But the current pope needed someone with Fitzgerald's expertise to edit out a quotation from Emperor Manuel II Paleologos that criticized the Prophet Mohammed. Benedict's speech was principally about the need for Christianity to fuse reason and faith. His assessment of Islam could have been left for another time.

Emperor Manuel was writing around the year 1400 as he fought to keep the Turks, a Muslim people, from overrunning his empire. It would finally fall to the Turks in 1453. In those days, most Muslim rulers treated Christians in their midst better than Christian rulers of Europe treated their minorities.

This year in Afghanistan, by contrast, a convert to Christianity was saved from death by international pressure, including a letter from the p ope. Today Muslims can freely worship throughout Europe, but Christians do not enjoy the same right in every Muslim land. Such treatment is why Pope Benedict became disenchanted with his predecessor's approach toward the Islamic world.

Last year, the pope urged Muslim leaders to condemn any connection between Islam and terror. If the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia Sunday was prompted by the pope's latest speech, it was an act of anti-Christian terror that deserves censure by Muslim leaders, as do attacks on churches in Palestinian lands.

The pope is scheduled to visit Turkey in November to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of Orthodox Christians. Turkey has a secular government within a predominantly Muslim society. In a vestige of the time when Byzantine emperors chose church leaders, the government appoints the patriarch, who must be a Turkish citizen. Bartholomew is pressing the government to reopen a seminary, closed in 1971, so that qualified candidates will succeed him.

No one leader speaks for Islam as the pope speaks for Catholic Christianity. But moderates on both sides need to take the lead to repair relations. The Vatican is conducting a diplomatic campaign with this goal. If Turkey lets Benedict's visit proceed and opens space for the patriarchate, it would show that Muslims and Christians are moving beyond enmities old and new.