Pope Benedict XVI’s personal apology for criticising Islam failed to stem the anger of hardline Muslims despite calls for calm from Islamic and Western leaders.
ROME: Pope Benedict XVI’s personal apology for criticising Islam failed to stem the anger of hardline Muslims today despite calls for calm from Islamic and Western leaders.
Hundreds of angry demonstrators burned an effigy of the pope in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra, while Al-Qaeda pledged a jihad (holy war) until the “servant of the cross” (the pope), and the West, are defeated.
Iran was unmoved by Sunday’s apology, saying it was not abject enough and called on the 79-year-old pontiff to admit he had made a mistake.
“These explanations were necessary but not sufficient. He needs to say more clearly that what he said was an error and correct it,” Tehran government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said.
The Basra protesters — who burned German and American flags — said the Pope’s remarks had insulted Islam and called for him to be tried by an international court.
Around 100 hardliners rallied outside the Holy See’s mission in Jakarta, waving a banner depicting the Vatican as an “axis of Satan”.
The mood was caught by Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who said the Pope’s remarks were the latest “links in a chain” of a US-Israeli conspiracy aimed at creating conflict between religions. An Al-Qaeda statement posted on the Internet threatened to “smash the cross”. Other armed groups in Iraq — Jaish al-Mujahedeen (the Mujahedeen’s Army), Asaeb al-Iraq al-Jihadiya (League of Jihadists in Iraq), and Ansar al-Sunna (Partisans of the Precepts of the Prophet) — threatened the Vatican with reprisals. The Vatican meanwhile launched a diplomatic offensive to explain to Muslim countries the Pope’s position on Islam.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone told the Corriere della Sera that Vatican ambassadors had been asked to explain to political and religious authorities in Muslim countries the full text of the pope's speech, which heretofore had been taken out of context and “heavily manipulated”. Jordan praised the pope for “quickly” expressing his regret over his remarks, but said more steps were needed to contain Muslim anger.
Meanwhile, newspapers in the Gulf continued to criticise the pontiff, with one Saudi daily saying his remarks were “beating the drums of war” for the American far-right.
The European Commission condemned “disproportionate” reactions to the speech, saying that violence struck at one of the EU's chief ideals. French President Jacques Chirac said “We must avoid any confusion between Islam, which is of course a respected and respectable religion, and radical Islamism which is a totally different form of behaviour and which is of a political nature,” he said.
In Britain the head of the worldwide Anglican church urged calm over the Pope’s remarks and said they needed to be judged against his entire record, “where he has spoken very positively about dialogue.”
Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said that “there are elements in Islam that can be used to justify violence, just as there are in Christianity and Judaism.”
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