Pope disappoints Jordan’s Muslim religious leaders

AMMAN: Pope Benedict XVI yesterday urged interfaith reconciliation on the second day of his Middle East tour but disappointed Muslim religious leaders by failing to offer a new apology for remarks seen as targeting Islam.

The pontiff in a keynote address to Muslim leaders in Amman’s huge Al-Hussein Mosque bemoaned “ideological manipulation of religion” and urged Muslims and Christians to unite as “worshippers of God.” “The contradiction of tensions and divisions between the followers of different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied,” the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics told his audience.

“However, is it not also the case that often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence in society?” Benedict asked.

Some religious leaders expressed disappointment however that the pontiff in his wide-ranging speech did not make an apology for a 2006 address in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor as criticizing the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The pontiff regretted at the time for the “unfortunate misunderstanding” but ahead of his visit to Jordan the kingdom’s main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front, said the pope was not welcome unless he issued a clear apology.

“What the pope said was not an apology,” said Hammam Said, the overall leader of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood and a University of Jordan professor.

Other Muslim leaders echoed his comments. “We wanted him to clearly apologize,” Sheikh Yusef Abu Hussein, mufti of the southern city of Karak, told AFP after the pope’s address.

But Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, Jordanian King Abdallah’s adviser on religious affairs who hosted the pontiff during his visit to the mosque, was more conciliatory.

“I would like to thank you for expressing regret over the lecture in 2006, which hurt the feelings of Muslims,” Ghazi told the pope. “We realize that the visit (to Jordan) comes as a goodwill gesture and a sign of mutual respect between Muslims and Christians.”