For 4th Time, Pope Clarifies Islam Remark
Muslims angry about Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks on Islam are not the only ones talking about an apology.
“What should he apologize for?” asked Daniele Corbetta, 43, a psychologist in Rome. “There is freedom of speech, and what he said is objectively true.”
There was, without doubt, a low-grade seething where Mr. Corbetta stood, with thousands of pilgrims and tourists — probably few of them Muslims — in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, as the pope again addressed a speech in which he had quoted a medieval emperor who called Islam “evil and inhuman.”
Three days after saying he was “very sorry” about the reaction to his remarks, delivered last week in Germany, Benedict sought to clarify them again.
“This quotation, unfortunately, was misunderstood,” he said, alluding to protests and attacks on churches by offended Muslims. “In no way did I wish to make my own, the words of the medieval emperor.”
“I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason, go together,” he said. He added that he hoped he had made clear his “profound respect for world religions and for Muslims.”
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“What should he apologize for?” asked Daniele Corbetta, 43, a psychologist in Rome. “There is freedom of speech, and what he said is objectively true.”
There was, without doubt, a low-grade seething where Mr. Corbetta stood, with thousands of pilgrims and tourists — probably few of them Muslims — in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, as the pope again addressed a speech in which he had quoted a medieval emperor who called Islam “evil and inhuman.”
Three days after saying he was “very sorry” about the reaction to his remarks, delivered last week in Germany, Benedict sought to clarify them again.
“This quotation, unfortunately, was misunderstood,” he said, alluding to protests and attacks on churches by offended Muslims. “In no way did I wish to make my own, the words of the medieval emperor.”
“I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason, go together,” he said. He added that he hoped he had made clear his “profound respect for world religions and for Muslims.”