Turkey's top Muslim leader slams Pope over Islam criticism

ANKARA: Turkey's top Muslim religious leader on Thursday blasted Pope Benedict XVI for criticising Islam, describing the pontiff as hateful and opposing his planned visit to Turkey in November.         

The remarks "reflect the hatred in his heart. It is a statement full of enmity and grudge," Ali Bardakoglu, the head of the state-run religious affairs directorate, told the NTV news channel.         

"It is a prejudiced and biased approach," he added.         

During a six-day visit to his native Germany this week, the pope hit out at Islam and its concept of "jihad" or holy war, citing a 14th-century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Mohammed had brought the world "evil and inhuman" things.       

"Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul," he said on Tuesday in an address at Regensburg University.          

Bardakoglu also spoke out against the pope's planned visit to Turkey on November 28-30 on an invitation from the government and the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul.           

"I do not think any good will come from the visit to the Muslim world of a person who has such ideas about Islam's prophet. He should first of all replace the grudge in his heart with moral values and respect for the other," Bardakoglu said.