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(IHC News, 1 March 2006)
Cleric Calls for ‘Day of Anger’ Against Pope's Remarks
Written by The Media Line Staff
Published Monday, September 18, 2006
A highly influential Muslim cleric is calling on Muslims to mark this coming Friday as a “day of anger,” to protest comments made by Pope Benedict XVI last week, which Muslims found offensive to Islam.
Sheikh Yousuf Al-‘Qara’dawi, the Qatar-based cleric who heads the World Union of Muslim Clerics, said that Friday should be a day of “rational anger.”
However, speaking on a program broadcast on the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, he urged “peaceful, not rash anger,” and asked Muslims not to target churches or places of worship.
He also called on Arab and Muslim ambassadors to the Vatican to submit protests in writing.
During a speech last Tuesday, the pope cited a medieval text which said that Muhammad’s teachings brought the world evil, comments that sparked angry protests throughout the Arab world.
Gunmen shot and killed an elderly Italian nun in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, in what many perceive as a possible angry retaliation to the pope’s remarks.
The nun, said to be in her 70s, was shot outside a nursing school and children’s hospital where she had taught for several years.
On Sunday, the pope apologized and said the views he cited did not reflect his own opinions. He said he was “deeply sorry” for the reactions in some countries to certain passages of his speech.
The apology was received with mixed feelings among Muslims. While some Muslims accepted the apology, others said it seemed that he regretted the angry reactions his comments caused, and not the actual comments.
Al-Qara’dawi said this was not considered an apology, as long as his comments still stood.
Al-Qara’dawi, 80, has been described as the leading and most influential cleric in the Muslim world.