O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom.
(Al-Qur' an, 3:118 Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran])
Muslims Assail Pope' s Remarks on Islam
By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_mi_ea/pope_muslims
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey' s ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about Islam. Muslim leaders in the Middle East expressed dismay, and
Pakistan ' s parliament unanimously condemned him.
The Vatican Germany
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, ' Show me just what Mohammed 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,' " he quoted the emperor as saying. He did not explicitly agree with them nor repudiate them.
Turkey' s top Islamic cleric, Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Bardakoglu, asked Benedict on Thursday to apologize
about the remarks and unleashed a string of accusations against Christianity, raising tensions before the pontiff' s planned visit to Turkey in November on what would be his first papal pilgrimage in a Muslim country.
Bardakoglu said he was deeply offended and called the remarks "extraordinarily worrying, saddening and unfortunate."
On Thursday, when the pope returned to Italy, Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said, "It certainly wasn' t the intention of the pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad (holy war) and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers." Lombardi insisted the pontiff respects Islam. Benedict wants to "cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward the other religions and cultures, obviously also toward Islam," Lombardi said.
On Friday, Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan' s party, said Benedict' s remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths. "He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz blurted out in comments made to the state-owned Anatolia news agency. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."
In Beirut , Lebanon ' s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric denounced the remarks and demanded the pope personally
apologize for insulting Islam. "We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels ... and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology not through his officials to Muslims for this false reading (of Islam)," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah told worshippers in his Friday prayers sermon.
A Lebanese government official said the country' s ambassador to the Vatican ' s remarks. In neighboring Syria, the grand mufti, the country' s top Sunni Muslim religious authority, sent a letter to the Pope saying he feared the pontiff' s comments on Islam would worsen interfaith relations.
And in Cairo ' s al-Azhar mosque. Pakistan' s parliament unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the pope for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam, and seeking an apology from him Pakistan' s Foreign Ministry also called the pope' s remarks "regrettable."
"Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. "What he has done is that he has quoted very offensive remarks by some emperor hundreds of years ago," Aslam said. "It is not helpful (because) we have been trying to bridge the gap, calling for dialogue and understanding between religions."
She said Muslims had a long history of tolerance, adding that when the Catholic kingdom of Spain Ottoman Empire .
Benedict, who has made the fight against growing secularism in Western society a theme of his pontificate, is expected to visit Turkey
On Friday the pope appointed a French prelate with diplomatic experience in the Muslim world as the Vatican ' s new foreign minister. The new foreign minister officially called secretary for relations with states is Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, 54, who was born of French parents in Morocco
Associated Press Writer Benjamin Harvey contributed to this report from Istanbul
"For to us will be their return; then it will be for us to call them to account." (Holy Quran 88:25-26)
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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