WORLD / Europe

Vatican tries to calm Pope row as militants vow war
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-09-18 20:14

VATICAN CITY - Al Qaeda militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of
the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope
Benedict's comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried
to calm passions.

The statement by an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al Qaeda came
after the Pontiff said on Sunday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been
offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war.

Pope Benedict gestures to the faithful during his Sunday Angelus prayer
from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, September 17,
2006. [Reuters]

"We tell the worshipper of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West
will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said a
Web statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council.

"We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims
to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make
their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the
statement, posted on Sunday on an Internet site often used by al Qaeda
and other militant groups.

In Iraq's southern city of Basra, up to 150 demonstrators chanted slogans
and burned a white effigy of the Pope.

"No to aggression!," "We gagged the Pope!," they chanted in front of the
governor's office in the Shi'ite city. The protesters also burned German,
US, and Israeli flags.

A speech by Pope Benedict last Tuesday was seen as portraying Islam as a
religion tainted by violence, causing dismay among Muslim states where
some religious leaders called it the start of a new Christian crusade
against Islam.

The Vatican has instructed its envoys in Muslim countries to explain Pope
Benedict's words on Islam.

Benedict's new Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said the
Holy See's nuncios (ambassadors) in Muslim countries would be visiting
government and religious leaders.

French President Jacques Chirac refused on Monday to criticize the
79-year-old Pontiff, but called for a more diplomatic use of language.

"It is not my role or my intention to comment on the Pope's statements. I
simply want to say, on a general level ... that we must avoid anything
that excites tensions between peoples or between religions," Chirac said
on Europe 1 radio.

"We must avoid making any link between Islam, which is a great, respected
and respectable religion, and radical Islamism, which is a totally
different activity and one of a political nature," Chirac added.

ARCHBISHOP DEFENDS POPE

The head of the world's Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams, defended Benedict.

"The Pope has already issued an apology and I think his views on this
need to be judged against his entire record, where he has spoken very
positively about dialogue," said Williams, the spiritual leader of 77
million Anglicans worldwide.

Williams told the BBC that all faiths could be distorted, and the Pope
was simply giving an example of that.

"There are elements in Islam that can be used to justify violence, just
as there are in Christianity and Judaism."

In Iran, a government spokesman said on Monday Pope Benedict's regret was
a "good gesture" but not enough.

The Pope had referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th
century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the
Prophet brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the
faith he preached."

Questions had been raised on whether a papal visit to Turkey in November
could go ahead, but the government, while calling his remarks "ugly,"
said there were no plans to call it off.

The Pope, head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, said the
quotation did not represent his personal views, but failed to satisfy
some Islamic groups seeking a full apology.

In Somalia, an Italian nun was killed on Sunday in an attack one Islamist
source said could be linked to the dispute. A Vatican spokesman hoped the
killing was "an isolated event."

A senior Chinese Muslim expressed anger over the Pope's comments, Xinhua
news agency said on Monday. This was in contrast to Chinese reticence
over last year's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a
Danish paper that sparked violent Muslim protests elsewhere in the world.

"In his speech, Benedict insulted both Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
This has gravely hurt the feelings of the Muslims across the world,
including those from China," Xinhua quoted Chen Guangyuan, president of
the Islamic Association of China, as saying.

About 100 Indonesian Muslims protested peacefully over the Pope's remarks
outside the Vatican embassy in Jakarta on Monday.

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