Editorial: Challenge in papal apology

Pope Benedict is possibly as surprised as anyone that a quotation he used in the course of a theological lecture last week should be causing such consternation among Muslims. The Pope was contributing to a discussion on the rationality of religion, and suggested religion ceased to have a rational basis when it used violence to advance its sway. He could have mentioned some of the history of his own church but instead he cited Islam.

He quoted a 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor, Manuel II, who said: "Show me what Muhammad 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 reaction from Muslims has included official condemnation everywhere from Indonesia to Morocco, fires lit in two churches in the West Bank, an Iraqi insurgent group's threat of a suicide attack on the Vatican and a Somali cleric's call for Muslims to hunt down and kill the Pope.

The Vatican quickly issued a statement of apology stressing that the Pope had called for a "clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence, from whatever side it may come". That did not appease groups such as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and the Supreme Council for Revolution in Iraq, which called for the Pope to apologise in person.

On Sunday His Holiness obliged, saying in his own voice, "I am deeply sorry ... " His medieval quotations, he said, "do not in any way express my personal thought". He intended his address to be "an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue with mutual respect".

This is not enough for some Muslim leaders. A professor in Saudi Arabia told Al-Arabiya television yesterday that the Pope was "evading apology", and warned that his statements might legitimise terrorism in Islam's name. In Iran, hundreds demonstrating in the religious city of Qom heard a hardline cleric claim the Pope and President Bush were conspiring to repeat the Crusades.

The Pope's reference to a dubious medieval view of Islam was unwise in the present international climate, and dangerous for Christian minorities in Muslim countries. But the refusal to accept his repeated apology is much worse. It is yet more evidence of elements in Islam that are ready to seize every real or imagined slight from the West and ride it for all it is worth in arousing fear and hatred for their own political purposes.

They must be aware that the violence implicit in their rhetoric, and in some of the reaction to comments the Pope made, reinforce his point. But they do not care that their motives are transparent to the West. They are talking to devoted young Islamists who need these grievances to sustain a perverted religious political cause.

The Pope's comments are yet another setback to ordinary, mainstream Islam, which probably recognises a degree of truth in the comments and wishes only that a Christian leader had not made them. But the world waits for moderate Islamic leadership to assert the peaceful values we are assured their religion enshrines. Repeated acts of violence committed in the name of Islam do not bring the outcry we would expect from those whose religion is sullied, and there appears not to be an organised mainstream campaign to reclaim Islam's good name.

Pope Benedict has previously called upon leading Muslim clerics to condemn "any connection between your faith and terrorism". His lecture last week can be seen as a re-statement of that appeal, as is the rider to his apology inviting "a frank and sincere dialogue with mutual respect". If Muslims can accept the apology they demanded, they should also now accept the challenge.