JEDDAH, 15 September 2006 — Muslim organizations and Islamic scholars from across the Arab world have criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s comments criticizing Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saying that such statements are reckless coming from a man who is supposed to be familiar with global religions.
The scholars have said that these comments will only serve to foment hatred between Muslims and Christians and widen the gap that already exists between people of the two religions and which many intellectuals from both sides are trying to bridge.
Muslim leaders say the 79-year-old pontiff launched a thinly veiled attack on Islam and the concept of holy war in a theological lecture to staff and students at the University of Regensburg in his native Bavaria in southern Germany on Tuesday.
Quoting a 14th-century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had brought the world “evil and inhuman” things, the pope said, “He said, I quote, ‘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 German pope was quoting from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
The sharp criticism from the Muslim world brought about a swift reaction from the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI respects Islam but rejects violence motivated by religion, his spokesman said.
Benedict seeks to “cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward other religions and cultures and obviously also toward Islam,” said Father Federico Lombardi in an official statement.
“It should be said that what is important to the pope is a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation of violence,” said Lombardi. “It was certainly not the intention of the Holy Father to do an in-depth study of jihad and Muslim thinking in this field and still less so to hurt the feelings of Muslim believers,” he added in the statement.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) — a body that includes Muslim scholars from across the Muslim world — condemned the pope’s statement.
Describing the pope to be “a man who is supposed to be familiar with all religions” the OIC, in a press statement, said such statements “increase hate between Muslim and Christian nations. It will also increase the gap between Muslims and Christians that many rational people from both sides are trying to bridge.”
The statement added that the OIC “regrets” the pope’s comments about the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saying that there was no “justification for such statements.”
“The OIC hopes that such surprising comments are not part of a new campaign against Islam by the Vatican, especially after decades of dialogue that brought scholars from the Muslims world together with scholars from the Vatican.”
Reacting to the comments, the Secretary-General of the International Islamic Media Organization Dr. Muhammad ibn Sibyan Al-Johani appealed to the pope not to “stoke the old embers of religious hatred and hostilities.”
“At a time when intellectuals the world over are striving to bridge the gulf between cultures and striving to steer the world away from extremist ideologies ... we are left shocked by a personality whom the whole world looks up to as the first person who would support the calls of sane people,” said Al-Johani.
The secretary-general called on the pope to apologize and asked, “Will such remarks serve Christian interests or will they widen the yawning gap between the Muslims and Christians, particularly Catholics?”
Al-Johani added that he found it strange that the pope was ignoring countless history books that referred to the equity and nobleness of Muslims and limited himself to quoting a Byzantine emperor. “The pope should realize that if we were to turn to the books of history to judge the issue then we would find the Catholic Church to be the biggest loser... It would only bring to surface the story of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition,” he said, adding, “It would be better for us to not refer to history. We should bury our old differences.”
Dr. Jameel H. Al-Lowahiq, professor of Shariah at the Taif University, said the remarks reveals “the enmity and grudge the new pope” harbors “toward Islam and our Prophet.”
“The lecture of the present pope, particularly at the time of deep international crisis, betrays the utter lack of prudence and propriety in sensing the consequences of making such a statement,” said Al-Lowahiq.
He added that that the pope was probably not aware of what the English philosopher Bernard Shaw said about the Prophet, in that the world badly needed a man like the Prophet Muhammad who placed his religion at an honorable position.
“I hope the pope will realize what Western and Christian historians wrote about Islam. The pope’s statement shows his and the entire Vatican’s weakness or rather nonexistent knowledge of Islam. It also reveals the psychological hatred the pope has of Islam and the Prophet,” added Al-Lowahiq.
“He should have more knowledge of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, he is quoting a Byzantine ruler and ignoring the writings of honest Christian researchers who speak with credibility,” he said.
Sheikh Muahmmad Al-Homaidi, judge at the Court of Grievances in Jeddah described the quotes as “baseless lies and fabrications about the Prophet, whose advent was a mercy to the entire world.”
“The motive behind the provocative statement from such a high personality, who is expected to take the initiative in dialogue between Christians and Muslims is difficult to understand,” Al-Homaidi said. The judge feared the remarks were an indication of the worsening relationship between different communities because of venomous statements that are more appropriate for the middle ages.
“Such statements will only provoke hatred between Islamic and Christian societies especially since we know that the Islamic world has not got over the cartoon fiasco. The pope should have taken a role in calming the situation and not provoke Muslims by saying that their Prophet brought evil. What are the motives behind these statements from a man who we hope would bring dialogue between Muslim and Christian nations and not the other way round,” he said.
“Such statements will just take us back to the middle ages. We Muslims are peaceful but we will not be quiet when provoked like this,” he said.
British expatriate Sohail Nakhooda, editor in chief of the Islamica Magazine in Amman and someone who has studied Christian theology at the Vatican and closely observed the Catholic Church from within, said he was “not at all surprised” at the comments.
“I don’t think he understands Islam or has the same concern to promote interfaith relations as did the late Pope John Paul II who took great steps in improving relations with Muslims. In the days when Pope Benedict was still known as Cardinal Ratzinger and as the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, he was well known for his theological conservatism and combative attitude to many contemporary issues the church faced,” said Nakhooda, adding that the current pope’s “antiquated perspectives on Islam are likely to make him a concern for the foreseeable future.”
“I think he romanticizes Europe’s debt to Christianity and sanitizes the church’s history and its own relationship to power and violence. Yet he does have a lot of valuable things to say about the nature of secularism and its problems. I think Muslims need to engage with him positively on theological, historical and spiritual fronts,” he said.
Father Francis Tiso from the Washington-based US Conference of Catholic Bishops “urged people to read the lecture carefully in more than one language if possible.”
He said, “A close reading of the lecture at Regensberg opens up the possibility of a profound dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, as well as other religious communities around the world who value rational discourse in harmony with deep faith and commitment.”
Justo Balda Lacunza, a Vatican-based priest specializing in Islamic affairs, said the speech was not intended to look unfavorably on Islam, but was an “examination” of this relationship.
This is not the first time the pope has stoked controversy. In Cologne, Germany, last year he urged Islamic leaders to take responsibility for their communities and teach their young to abhor violence. The pope will make his first visit to a Muslim country in November, when he is scheduled to travel to Turkey.
Turkey’s top Muslim religious leader described the pontiff’s remarks as hateful, prejudiced and biased. “It is a statement full of enmity and grudge,” said Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Turkey’s state-run religious affairs directorate. He also expressed opposition to the pope’s planned visit to Turkey.
“We hope that the church will very quickly... clarify its position so that it does not confuse Islam, which is a revealed religion, with Islamism, which is not a religion but a political ideology,” the head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, told AFP.
Similarly senior Islamic officials in Kuwait demanded an immediate apology from the pope to the Muslim world. Haken Al-Mutairi, secretary general of the Umma (Islamic Nation) party, urged him to apologize for “calumnies against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam.”
The president of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, responded to Benedict’s comments by recalling violent chapters in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported yesterday.
“After the bloodstained conversions in South America, the Crusades in the Muslim world, the coercion of the church by Hitler’s regime, and even the coining of the phrase ‘holy war’ by Pope Urban II, I do not think the church should point a finger at extremist activities in other religions,” he said.
— With input from agencies
