Muslim political and religious leaders around the world have been reacting to a speech by Pope Benedict XVI in which he mentioned the Prophet Muhammad.
PAKISTANI PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF
Our strategy must clearly oppose the sinister tendencies to associate terrorism with Islam and discrimination against Muslims, which are giving rise to an ominous alienation between the west and the world of Islam.
MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI
The Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that
has been created. The Vatican must now take full
responsibility over the matter and carry out the necessary
steps to rectify the mistake.
SAUDI GRAND MUFTI SHEIKH ABDUL AZIZ AL-SHEIKH
This is all a lie ... Islam is far from terrorism and was
spread only through the conviction of peoples who saw the good and
justice of Islam.
EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER AHMED ABOUL GHEIT
This was a very unfortunate statement and it is a statement that shows that there is a lack of understanding of real Islam. And because of this we are hopeful that such statements and such positions would not be stated in order to not allow tension and distrust and recriminations to brew between the Muslim as well as the west.
PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER ISMAIL HANIYA
In the name of our Palestinian people... we express our condemnation of the statements of his Excellency the Pope, against Islam as a belief, Sharia, history, and a lifestyle.
The derogatory remarks of the Pope about the philosophy of
jihad and Prophet Muhammad have injured sentiments across the Muslim
world and pose the danger of spreading acrimony among the
HAMID ANSARI, CHAIRMAN OF INDIA'S MINORITY COMMISSION
The language used by the Pope sounds like that of his 12th-Century counterpart who ordered the crusades... It surprises me because the Vatican has a very comprehensive relationship with the Muslim world".
DIN SYAMSUDDIN, HEAD OF MUHAMMADIYAH, INDONESIA'S SECOND LARGEST MUSLIM ORGANISATION
The Pope's statements reflect his lack of wisdom. It is
obvious from the statements that the Pope doesn't have a
correct understanding of Islam.
AHMAD KHATAMI, IRANIAN CLERIC
unfortunate to see that the leader of the world's Christians
is so ill-informed about Islam and speaks so shamelessly.
Muslims around the world would surely react to such weak
arguments and will invite those who misunderstand Islam to
learn about the religion. We say that such insults will
spread the influence of Islam further.
MOHAMMED MAHDA AKEF, EGYPTIAN MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
The remarks do not express correct understanding of Islam and are merely
wrong and distorted beliefs being repeated in the West.
SHEIKH YOUSSEF AL-QARDAWI, QATARI MUSLIM CLERIC AND HEAD OF ISLAMIC SCHOLARS' ASSOCIATION
Our hands are outstretched
and our religion calls for peace, not for war, for love not
for hatred, for tolerance, not for fanaticism, for knowing
each other and not for disavowing each other.
We condemn this and we want to
know the explanation of this and what is intended by this.
We call on the pope, the pontiff, to apologise to the
Islamic nation because he has insulted its religion and
Prophet, its faith and Sharia without any justification."
ALI BARDAKOGLU, SENIOR TURKISH MUSLIM
I do not see any use in somebody visiting the Islamic world
who thinks in this way about the holy prophet of Islam. He
should first rid himself of feelings of hate.
SALIH KAPUSUZ, DEPUTY LEADER OF TURKEY'S RULING AK PARTY
The owner of those unfortunate and arrogant comments, Benedict XVI, has gone down in history, but in the same category as Hitler and Mussolini.
He seems to have a mindset that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world. It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades.
GRAND AYATOLLAH MOHAMMAD HUSSEIN FADLALLAH, SENIOR LEBANESE SHIA CLERIC
We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels... and ask him to offer a personal apology -
not through his officials - to Muslims for this false
ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE STATEMENT
The OIC hopes that this sudden campaign does not reflect
a new trend for the Vatican policy toward the Islamic
religion ... and it expects the Vatican to express its real
vision of Islam.
DR MUHAMMAD ABDUL BARI, MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN
One would expect a religious leader such as the Pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations. Regrettably, the Pope did not do so and this has understandably caused a lot of dismay and hurt.