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Pope must apologise: Indian Muslims
Published on Fri, Sep 15, 2006 at 15:00, Updated on Fri, Sep 15, 2006 at 22:34 in India section
Tags: Pope Benedict XVI, Jihad , New Delhi
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New Delhi: Officials of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti’s dargah in Friday on Friday demanded that Pope Benedict XVI retract his comments on jihad and apologise to Muslisms.
The pope was the head of a religion and it was unbecoming of him to hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims, said Saiyad Jainul Abedin, descendent of Khwaja Saheb and the Dargah Diwan.
Islam respected all religions and Quran had no examples of spreading terrorism, but the Pope without ascertaining the facts had linked Islam with terrorism, said Abedin.
Reacting strongly to the pope's comments, dargah khadim S F Hasan Chisti said the pope had no idea about the teachings of Islam and all Muslims had been hurt by his remarks.
The Khadims demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take up this matter at the international forum and should see that such incidents were not repeated in the future.
The Khadims said the Pope should apologise publicly the same way he condemned the Islam religion at a public function.
In Lucknow, Islamic scholar Maulana Khalid Rasheed expressed shock at the remark.
"The remark is more derogatory than the Danish cartoonist's blasphemous sketches on the Prophet. This was the last thing we could have expected from the Pope," said Rasheed, who is a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
"Muslims have tolerated Christian terrorism on the people of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and now Lebanon, but no Muslim is going to tolerate such wild, baseless and unfounded allegations against the Prophet."
"The charge that the Prophet used the sword to spread Islam is false. The Prophet used the sword only to defend Islam not to spread the religion. He believed in peace and practised it to the hilt," Rasheed said.
Shia Leader Maulana Kalbe Jawad added, "This has been a very irresponsible statement. The pope has blamed all the evils in the world on Islam and that is not acceptable."
In Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) Chairman Shabir Ahmad Shah was put under house arrest on Friday morning.
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