Islamic foreign ministers press pope to apologize

United Nations, Sep 27: An organization of 56 Islamic nations pressed Pope Benedict today to apologise for his comments linking Muslims and violence, keeping alive a two-week-old controversy.

Foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, approved a statement urging the Vatican to ''retract or redress'' the comments, in which the pope cited quotes saying the Muslim faith was spread by violence.

The group issued its statement a day after Pope Benedict assured diplomats from some 20 Muslim nations and the leaders of Italy's Muslim community that he respected them and was committed to dialogue.

It was the fourth time he had tried to make amends, without actually apologizing directly, for his September 12 speech at a university in his native Germany.

Several of the envoys attending the unprecedented meeting at his summer residence south of Rome said they felt it had gone a long way to help end the controversy. But others said they still thought an apology was in order.

The pope had enraged Muslims by quoting 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the Prophet Mohammad brought was evil ''such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'' The OIC statement said Islamic nations' foreign ministers ''believe that it is befitting to the Vatican to retract or redress the said statement, in demonstration of the correct spirit of Christianity in dealing with Islamic issues.''

The ministers expressed their ''profound regrets'' over the remarks and said they feared his language ''might engender a situation of tension between the Muslim world and the Vatican, to the detriment of the real interests of the two parties.'' The foreign ministers gathered on the sidelines of a meeting of the 192-nation UN General Assembly in New York.

Reuters

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