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ITALY: POPE EXPRESSES ADMIRATION FOR MUSLIMS December 7, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Pope Benedict XVI expressed his admiration for Muslims and Islam on Wednesday, and called for freedom of religion and faith that rejects all forms of violence.
The pontiff, who returned to Italy Friday from the four-day visit to Turkey that included a stop at Istanbul's Blue Mosque, discussed his trip during his weekly audience at the Vatican. As a secular state with a predominantly Muslim population, Turkey is an emblem of the challenge for much of the world, Benedict said.
Benedict's trip was originally envisioned as a pilgrimage to reinforce Christian bonds and reach out to Turkey's remaining Christians, including Catholics estimated to number between 20,000 and 30,000. But after the pope gave a speech in September that angered many Muslims, it became a test of the Vatican's ability to mend ties with the Islamic world.
Muslims throughout the world reacted angrily and in some cases violently to the speech in which Benedict quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
Benedict's visit to a mosque was only the second in papal history. His predecessor Pope John Paul II made a groundbreaking visit to the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, in 2001. On Wednesday, the pope described his visit to the mosque as "a gesture that was not initially planned but that turned out to have great significance."