18 Sept 2006

Pope and Islam

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, says Benedict XVI. See the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia: "What is really good in Mohammedan ethics is either commonplace or borrowed from some other religions, whereas what is characteristic is nearly always imperfect or wicked."

Pope Benedict XVI hit out at Islam and its concept of Holy War during one of the last public appearances of  his six-day visit to his Bavarian homeland.

The thinly-veiled attack on extremist Islam's justification for terrorism came in a complex theological lecture to staff and students at the University of Regensburg, where the former Joseph Ratzinger taught theology in the 1970s.

Using the words, "Jihad" and "Holy War" in his lecture, the pope quoted criticisms of the Prophet Mohammed by a 14th Century Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached," Benedict quoted him as saying in a contemporary debate with a learned Persian.

Source: Middle East Online