An Iraqi militant group led by al-Qaeda vowed a war against the ”worshippers of the cross” in response to a recent speech by Pope Benedict on Islam that sparked anger across the Muslim world.
”We tell the worshipper of the cross [the pope] that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya,” said a statement posted to a website by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq’s branch of al-Qaeda.
”We shall break the cross and spill the wine. … God will [help] Muslims to conquer Rome … God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen,” said the statement.
It was posted on Sunday on an website often used by al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
Pope Benedict said on Sunday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a Mediaeval quotation on Islam and violence.
The remarks outraged Muslims and triggered protests and attacks on churches in several Arab towns.
Another militant group in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunnah, also vowed to fight Christians in retaliation.
”You will only see our swords until you go back to God’s true faith Islam,” it said in a separate statement on a website.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups have staged suicide bombings and killings of foreign forces and members of the US-allied government and security forces.
Archbishop defends pope
The head of the world’s Anglican church stepped in to defend the embattled pope on Monday.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who is the spiritual leader of 77-million Anglicans worldwide, said Pope Benedict had been right to apologise for the offence caused and said his comments should be taken in 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,” Williams said.
On Sunday the German-born pope, elected in April last year, said he was ”deeply sorry” about the reaction to his comments, which he said were ”a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought”.
Williams told the BBC that all faiths could be distorted, and the pope was simply giving an example of that.
”There are elements in Islam that can be used to justify violence, just as there are in Christianity and Judaism,” Williams 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.”
The Archbishop also said he understood Muslim sensitivity to comments which appear to misunderstand the nature of Islam.
”There is a sense that Islam in Western eyes generally is written off, is regarded as wholly unreasonable and violent,” he said. ”There is a sense of frustration among the most moderate and educated Muslims that they don’t really get a fair hearing. It goes quite deep.” – Reuters