Archbishop Backs Vatican Apology

Extracted from The Guardian, UK
Peter Walker and agencies, Monday September 18, 2006

The Archbishop of Canterbury defended the Pope today over his remarks about Islam and violence, saying Muslim protestors were taking the pontiff's use of a medieval quotation out of its wider context.

"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," Dr Rowan Williams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Pope Benedict made a personal expression of regret yesterday, saying he was "deeply sorry" for offending some Muslims and insisting that his quotation from the controversial text during a lecture in his native Germany last week, in no way represented his own views.

However, his apology risked criticism from another source by citing a passage from St Paul calling the crucifixion of Jesus a "scandal for the Jews".

Protests against the Pope continued today, with even officially atheist China complaining that its Muslim population had been upset.

Dr Williams said the row illustrated the ways in which religious teachings could be distorted to create conflict.

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

"These religious faiths, because they are held by human beings who are very fallible, can be distorted in these ways and we all need to recognise that."

He added: "There is always a temptation for Christians to say to Muslims: 'I will tell you what your history is about', just as Muslims sometimes say to Christians. Sometimes they get it deeply wrong.

"The example the Pope took from the Middle Ages shows in its phrasing how in the Middle Ages people got it wrong on both sides and Muslim distortions of Christian history are just as laughable as Christian distortions of Muslim history.

"The big question that comes out of this for me is how much are we prepared to listen to the other person telling their story and how much are both sides prepared to be self-critical in discussing aspects of their history that are not pretty and not edifying."

In the southern Iraqi city of Basra around 150 demonstrators burned an effigy of the Pope, along with German, US, and Israeli flags, Reuters reported.

A similar sized crowd chanted "Death to the Pope" and burned another effigy in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the president of the Islamic Association of China said Benedict had "insulted both Islam and the Prophet Muhammad", according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.

"This has gravely hurt the feelings of the Muslims across the world, including those from China," Chen Guangyuan said.

Although China's ruling Communist Party is atheist, the country permits religious worship in government controlled places of worship.

The Vatican does not recognise the country's state-run Catholic Church, which appoints its own bishops and refuses to adhere to Papal authority. Benedict has been trying to mend ties with Beijing.