PARIS, April 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – French Muslims have expressed concerns about Pope Benedict XVI’s position on an EU membership for Muslim Turkey, hoping he would be a major uniting factor among the three monotheistic religions.

“We need more clarifications and reassurances from the new pope,” Haydar Demiryuek, the secretary general of the French Council for Muslim Faith (CFCM), told IslamOnline.net Saturday, April 23.

Citing Islamophobic concerns, Demiryuek said Turkey’s bid to join the expanding euro bloc is purely political.

“Political and religious roles should be separated when it comes to Turkey’s EU membership,” he stressed.

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, elected Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, April 19, said Muslim but secular Turkey should seek its future in an association of Islamic nations, not with the EU, which has Christian roots.

In an interview last year with France's Le Figaro magazine, Ratzinger, then doctrinal head of the Roman Catholic Church, said Ankara had always been “in permanent contrast to Europe” and that linking it to Europe would be “an enormous mistake”.

Bishop LeLong said statements made by the pope before his election do not represent the Holy See.

But prominent French bishop Michel LeLong, who chaired a Vatican organization on Islamic-Christian relations, watered down the concerns.

“His stance on Turkey’s admission into the EU, which was stated before assuming the papacy, is purely a political rather than a religious one,” he told IOL.

He said any statements made by Ratzinger before the April 19 election did in no way represent the Holy See.

LeLong said Pope Benedict XVI puts all other religions on an equal footing despite being portrayed by media as a staunch conservative who has been the Vatican's doctrinal enforcer.

After the 78-year-old pontiff settled into power as head of the Roman Catholics, which claims 1.1 billion followers worldwide, reports raised fears about his stance on inter-faith dialogue.

There was also negative reaction from Protestants still smarting from a document written by Ratzinger in 2000 that dismissed their denominations as “not proper churches.”

But the new pope moved swiftly on the first day of his reign to allay fears of a rigid papacy, saying he would work for dialogue both within the Church and with other faiths.

“I welcome everybody with simplicity and love to assure them that the Church wants to continue in open and sincere dialogue with them, in search of the true good of man and society,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“I will spare no effort and commitment to continue the promising dialogue with other civilizations that was started by my venerable predecessors,” he added.

Some observers fear that Jewish lobbies might blackmail the new pope for his wartime membership – which he confirms was enforced -- in Nazi Germany's Hitler Youth.

Jewish leaders have praised Pope Benedict XVI’s swift and firm commitment to follow in his predecessor's path of Catholic-Jewish reconciliation, saying it was “a very powerful signal” for the future.

“I trust in God to help me continue the dialogue and strengthen the collaboration with the sons and daughters of the Jewish people,” the pontiff said in a message to Rome's Jewish community only two days after his election.

Rome's Chief Rabbi Ricardo Di Segni told Reuters on Friday, April 22, that the message was a “pleasant surprise.”

In his autobiography, Ratzinger said he and his brother were both enrolled in the Hitler Youth when membership was obligatory.

But his biographers say he was never a member of the Nazi party and his family opposed Hitler's regime.