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Turkish Lawmaker Compares Pope to Hitler

CBNNews.com

CBNNews.com – A Turkish lawmaker said that history would record Pope Benedict XVI “in the same category s leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini” for remarks he made about the Muslim faith.

Turkey's ruling party joined a wave of criticism of the Pope on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades.

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," said Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkey’s ruling party.

The controversy was sparked during an address at a university in Germany, Tuesday, when the Pope quoted from a book recounting between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

“The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, '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.'"

The remarks sparked a firestorm of criticism in the Muslim world.

On Thursday, Turkey's top Islamic cleric, Ali Bardakoglu, asked Benedict to apologize for the remarks. In Beirut, Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric denounced the remarks Friday, demanding the pope personally apologize for insulting Islam.

Also on Friday, Pakistan’s parliament unanimously condemned the pope for the statements.

In his remarks, Benedict neither explicitly agreed nor repudiated the statement. Still, the comments created tension ahead of a planned visit to Turkey in November. Turkey's secular opposition party also demanded that Benedict apologize to Muslims before his visit to Turkey.

On Friday, the pope appointed Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, a French prelate with experience in the Muslim world, as the Vatican's new foreign minister. But the appointment was not enough to appease the anger in the Muslim world

"Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

The Vatican said the pope did not intend the comments to be offensive.

"It certainly wasn't the intention of the pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad (holy war) and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers," said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Lombardi insisted the pope respects Islam. Benedict wants to "cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward the other religions and cultures, obviously also toward Islam.”

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