Militants vow war as Vatican tries to calm Pope row

VATICAN CITY - Al Qaeda militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy on Monday over Pope Benedict's comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried to calm passions.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined a chorus of Muslim criticism of the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, calling the Pope's remarks "the latest chain of the crusade against Islam started by America's (George W) Bush".

The Pontiff said on Sunday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war. But he stopped short of retracting a speech seen as portraying Islam as a religion tainted by violence.

While some Muslims were mollified by his explanation for the speech made in Germany last Tuesday, others remained furious.

"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 web statement 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," said the statement, posted on Sunday on an internet site often used by al Qaeda and other militant groups.

In Iraq's southern city of Basra, up to 150 demonstrators chanted slogans and burned a white effigy of the Pope.

"No to aggression!", "We gagged the Pope!", they chanted in front of the governor's office in the Shi'ite city.

In Egypt a parliamentary committee called for the expulsion of the Vatican envoy if the Pope did not apologise and in Kuwait Muslim clerics said his Sunday address "does not amount to an apology because he said Muslims had misunderstood his speech".

"He must declare frankly he made a mistake and must pledge not to repeat such false accusations against Islam," they said.

Criticisms were also made by Muslims in the United States, China, Indonesia, and by Chechen and Azeri Muslims.

With some clerics calling it the start of a new Christian crusade against Islam, the Vatican has instructed its envoys in Muslim countries to explain Pope Benedict's words on Islam.

The Pope had referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the Prophet brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

But he said on Sunday this was not his view and he favoured frank dialogue with Islam. His new Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Holy See nuncios (ambassadors) in Muslim countries would visit government and religious leaders.

The European Commission called for Pope Benedict's remarks not to be "deliberately taken out of context" and for freedom of speech to be respected. French President Jacques Chirac refused to criticise him, but called for a more diplomatic language.

"It is not my role or my intention to comment on the Pope's statements. I simply want to say, on a general level ... that we must avoid anything that excites tensions between peoples or between religions," Chirac said on Europe 1 radio.

"We must avoid making any link between Islam, which is a great, respected and respectable religion, and radical Islamism, which is a totally different activity and one of a political nature," Chirac added.

The head of the world's Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, defended Benedict.

"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," said Williams, the spiritual leader of 77 million Anglicans worldwide.

Questions had been raised on whether a papal visit to Turkey in November could go ahead, but Ankara, while calling his remarks "ugly", said there were no plans to call it off.

In Somalia, an Italian nun was killed on Sunday in an attack one Islamist source said could be linked to the dispute. The Vatican said it hoped the killing was "an isolated event".

The Pope said on Sunday that he might elaborate on the crisis on Wednesday, when he gives a regular public audience at St Peter's in the Vatican before large crowds of pilgrims.

In the United States, the Council of Islamic Organisations of Greater Chicago which represents 400,000 Muslims in the area said that from Sunday's speech it "does not appear the Pope is distancing himself from his Tuesday statement".

It urged the Pope to grasp a "a great opportunity to use words of reconciliation and we hope he will do so soon".

- REUTERS