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The Muslim foreign ministers said the crisis reflects the pope's poor knowledge of Islam. (Reuters)
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UNITED NATIONS — Expressing dissatisfaction with
Pope Benedict XVI's response to the crisis triggered by his recent
remarks on Islam, fifty six Muslim foreign ministers asked the Vatican
on Tuesday, September 26, for a retraction.
"It is befitting to the Vatican to retract or
redress the said statement, in demonstration of the correct spirit of
Christianity in dealing with Islamic issues," the umbrella
Organization o Islamic Conference (OIC) said in a statement by its
foreign ministers, reported Reuters.
The ministers expressed their concern that the
language used by the pope might engender a situation of tension
between the Muslim world and the Vatican.
Pope Benedict has triggered international criticism
after quoting 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."
The pontiff met on Monday September 25, with Muslim
envoys but make no apology.
He has repeatedly blamed the crisis on the
misunderstand of his speech, insisting the controversial quotes do not
reflect his views on Islam.
Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly
session, the OIC ministers asked Pope Benedict to apologize for
linking Muslims and violence.
Pope Benedict has so far resisted Muslim calls for
a clear apology and the removal of the controversial quotes from the
text of his lecture, considered an official Vatican document.
Ignorance
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The pope remarks have sparked worldwide protests.
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The OIC foreign ministers expressed their profound
regret over the terms used by the pontiff with regard to Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) blaming this on his poor
knowledge of Islam.
"These terms reflect lack of correct
information about the Holy Qur'an, the Prophet and the Islamic
faith," said the statement.
Father Youhana Qilta, the deputy patriarch of
Egypt's Catholics on Saturday, September 16, blamed the Pope
anti-Islam jibe to his poor knowledge of Islam, warning that the
"surprising" remarks could play into the hands of
extremists.
The OIC foreign ministers said the offensive
remarks came "at the time when the Muslim world was expecting
from His Holiness the new Pope to continue the promotion of the
cordial ties which prevailed with his predecessors, and with the
Vatican since many decades."
Theologians and scholars agree that Pope Benedict
XVI's remarks on Islam dealt a blow to the dialogue between the Muslim
world and the Roman Catholic Church that his predecessor John Paul II
did much to encourage.
The influential Dublin-based International Union
for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which brings together prominent Sunni and
Shiite scholars from across the world has halted inter-faith dialogue
with the Vatican and cancelled an Islamic-Christian summit slated for
November or December in protest.
Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni
world snubbed a papal invitation to visit the Vatican and a proposal
to invite the pontiff to deliver a lecture on Islam, insisting on a
clear-cut apology.
John Paul II, the German pope's predecessor, made
considerable achievements in improving relations between Islam and
Catholicism.
In 1986 he took the unprecedented step of hosting a
grand inter-religious gathering that saw Jewish, Christian and Muslim
dignitaries gather in Assisi, central Italy, alongside Hindus,
Buddhists, Sikhs, representatives of the Shinto faith and African and
Amerindian religions for a day of prayer for peace.
Years later in November 2004 the Polish pope was
still promoting the same ideals: "No one has the right to use
religion as an instrument of intolerance, as a means of aggression,
violence and death," he told a mixed-faith delegation from
Azerbaijan, a mainly Muslim country.
John Paul II also sought direct dialogue with
Islam. Already the first pope to enter a synagogue, in May 2001 in
Damascus he became the first pope to enter a mosque.
