AMMAM: Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood movement on Monday urged Pope Benedict to postpone his visit to the Middle East and to apologize first for his statements that the group considered “injurious” to Islam.
“We hope that the Vatican will take a decision to postpone the visit until certain issues are cleared,” the Muslim Brotherhood’s official spokesman Jamil Abu Bakr said in a statement.
“The pope’s visit to the region should reflect collaboration of Muslims and Christians throughout history . . . but sticking to provocative attitudes will not serve this message,” he added.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church is due to arrive in Jordan on May 8 for a four-day visit to be followed by trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Abu Bakr urged the pontiff to “apologize to Muslims for his remarks against Islam and the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).”
“Ignoring Muslims’ sentiments by Pope Benedict XVI will only block the healing of wounds his statements caused,” he said without citing the statements made previously by the pope against Muslims.
During a lecture in 2006 at the University of Regensburg in Germany where he taught theology, Benedict quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, one of the last Christian rulers before the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottoman Empire: “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.”
Abu Bakr in particular expressed Islamists’ objection to the pope’s scheduled visit to the Holocaust monument in Israel, saying the visit “will take palace only a short time after the Zionist entity killed hundreds of Palestinian children, women and old men in the Gaza Strip.” “We ask if the pope of the Vatican will visit Gaza to explore how humanity is being violated or this does not deserve his visit?” he said.
