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Last update - 15:34 15/09/2006
Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demands personal apology from Pope
By The Associated Press


Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric on Friday denounced Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks about Muslim holy war, 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.Fadlallah's words were some of the strongest yet in response to the pontiff's remarks on Islam's prophet Muhammad and holy war, during a speech this week in Germany, which angered many in the Muslim world.

"We call on the pope to carry out a scientific and fastidious reading of Islam. We do not want him to succumb to the propaganda of the enemy led by Judaism and imperialism against Islam," Fadlallah said. Other Islamic leaders have demanded an apology from the pope, over remarks in which he quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian, on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said."He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad 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,"' Benedict quoted the emperor as saying.

On Thursday, the Vatican said the pope had not intended to offend Muslim sensibilities with the remarks. But the comments continued to reverberate Friday. About 100 worshippers demonstrated after Friday prayers at Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque, the Sunni Arab world's most prominent institution, chanting "Oh Crusaders, oh cowards! Down with the pope!"Many attributed the pope's comments to a larger political bias against Muslims.

"This is part of the whole war against Islam. Whenever we close a door on evil, they open another door," said an Egyptian man who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

"These Christians are all infidels. Benedict himself is an infidel and a blind man. Doesn't he see that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places were waged by Christians?" another worshipper said.

One of the protest's organizers, a Muslim Brotherhood figure, shouted into a microphone, demanding an official apology from the Vatican.Hundreds of Egyptian riot police wearing black helmets and carrying heavy shields surrounded the mosque, preventing protesters from spilling over into the streets.

Fadlallah said he condemns "and protests in the strongest terms" the pope's comments, "particularly his quoting without any occasion of the words of the emperor in which he insults Prophet Muhammad."Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora instructed Lebanon's ambassador to the Vatican, Naji Abi Assi, to visit the Vatican Foreign Ministry to seek clarifications on the pontiff's remarks, a Lebanese government official said Friday.

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. Sheik Ahmad Badereddine Hassoun, a moderate cleric, said the comments "raise intellectual, cultural and religious problems between followers of religious faiths."The letter, addressed to the pope and delivered to the Vatican embassy in Damascus, avoided sharp criticism however, reflecting tight control by Syria's secular regime."We expect that what has been attributed to your holiness is not true and hope we can all work together on spreading divine values that call for harmony, accord and cooperation," Hassoun wrote.