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"Does the pope want to close the door on dialogue and new crusades to be readied?" wondered
Qaradawi.
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WORLD CAPITALS – A
growing chorus of Muslim leaders worldwide
were united Friday, September 15, in insisting
on a clear-cut apology from Pope Benedict over
his comments that showed how little he
understands Islam and could hurt religious
harmony.
"We demand that he
apologizes personally, and not through
(Vatican) sources, to all Muslims for such a
wrong interpretation," said Lebanese
Shiite scholar Sayyed Mohammad Hussein
Fadlallah, Reuters reported.
"While we strongly
condemn and reject this talk ... we call for
Muslim-Christian relations based on an
in-depth scientific understanding of the
mutual points of view, leaving aside
sensational words," said Fadlallah.
Sheikh Hamza Mansour, who
heads the Shura Council of the Islamic Action
Front, Jordan's largest opposition party, said
only a personal apology could rectify the
"deep insult made by the provocative
comments" to over 1 billion Muslims.
The head of the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt called on Islamic
countries to threaten to break off relations
with the Vatican unless the Pontiff withdrew
his remarks and apologize.
"The general guide
(Mohammad Mahdi Akef) expressed his surprise
that such comments should come from someone
who sits at the summit of the Catholic Church
and who has an influence over public opinion
in the West," said a statement on the
Muslim Brotherhood's official Web site,
www.ikhwanonline.com.
In his speech at the
University of Regensburg on Tuesday, Benedict
quoted criticism of Islam and Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him) by 14th
century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II
Palaeologus, who wrote that everything
Muhammad brought was evil and inhuman,
"such as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached."
Benedict repeatedly quoted
Manuel's argument that spreading the faith
through violence is unreasonable, adding:
"Violence is incompatible with the nature
of God and the nature of the soul."
The pope's official
spokesman later issued a response to the
outcry, saying that Benedict respected Islam
but rejected violence motivated by religion.
"It was certainly not
the intention of the Holy Father to do an
in-depth study of jihad and Muslim thinking in
this field and still less so to hurt the
feelings of Muslim believers," said
Federico Lombardi, head of the Vatican's press
department.
Ignorance
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Akef said he is surprised that such comments should come from someone who sits at the summit of the Catholic Church.
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Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi,
the head of the International Union for Muslim
Scholars (IUMS), said the pope's words
reflected ignorance of the basic tenets of
Islam.
"The pope spoke about
Islam without reading first its scriptures,
the Noble Qur'an, and Prophet Muhammad's
hadiths, but sufficed to cite a conversation
between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian
Muslim intellectual," said in a
statement, a copy of which was sent to
IslamOnline.net.
"The pope forgot that
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) came with a message that struck the right
balance between this life and the Hereafter,
between individual and society and between
rights and duties," he added.
"Everything that
Prophet Muhammad brought was good and by far
surpassed the things brought by Christianity
and Judaism," he continued.
Sheikh Qaradawi said Jihad
in Islam is for self-defense and not to impose
the Muslim faith on someone and the Noble
Qur'an says: "There is no compulsion in
religion."
"To say hat Prophet
Muhammad brought evil and inhuman things like
spreading faith by the sword is either a
calumny or pure ignorance, in effect."
And the prominent scholar
wondered: "Does the pope want to close
the door on dialogue and new crusades to be
readied?"
"We hoped that the
pope would call for a constructive dialogue
between all religions and civilizations to lay
to rest clashes and feuds," he said.
Din Syamsuddin, chairman of
Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic
organization in Indonesia, echoed Qaradawi's
statements.
"The Pope's statements
reflect his lack of wisdom. It is obvious from
the statements that the Pope doesn't have a
correct understanding of Islam,"
Syamsuddin told Reuters.
The Pakistani parliament
Friday also unanimously called on the pontiff
to take back his words.
"This House demands
that the pope should retract his remarks in
the interest of harmony between
religions," said the resolution passed by
the National Assembly of the overwhelmingly
Muslim country.
Crusade Language
Sheikh Qaradawi wondered:
"Does the pope want to close the door on
dialogue and new crusades to be readied?"
The comments also stirred
anger in India with the head of the National
Commission for Minorities saying the Pope
sounded like a medieval crusader.
"The language used by
the pope sounds like that of his 12th century
counterpart who ordered the crusades,"
said Hamid Ansari, chairman of the National
Commission for Minorities.
A member of the All India
Muslim Personal Law Board also slammed the
pope's words, saying they were "nothing
but blasphemy," and called on Muslims to
"exercise restraint and not lose their
cool."
In Turkey, the Anatolian
state news agency quoted Ali Bardakoglu, the
head of Ankara's Directorate General for
Religious Affairs, as describing the Pope's
words as "extremely regrettable".
"I do not see any use
in somebody visiting the Islamic world who
thinks in this way about the holy prophet of
Islam. He should first rid himself of feelings
of hate," NTV's website quoted Bardakoglu
as saying.
Bardakoglu, whose
directorate controls all imams in Turkey and
sends imams to Turkish communities abroad,
recalled atrocities committed by Roman
Catholic Crusaders during the Middle Ages in
the name of their faith against Orthodox
Christians and Jews as well as Muslims.
