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February 19, 2006
Spain: Minister Asks Pope To Engage In Muslim Dialogue
From today's Turkish Daily News, a report that Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, has requested Pope Benedict XVI to support an initiative aimed at improving Western-Arab understanding.
Last year, Spain and Turkey began the initiative and this month asked for calm and "respect" after violent Muslim demonstrations against the notorious "cartoons" of the Prophet Mohammed.
Moratinos made the request during a visit to the Vatican. He met with the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's foreign minister.
Pope Benedict has condemned the cartoons, stating that freedom of speech is not a freedom to offend a person's religion.
The Pope is due to visit Valencia, Spain, in July, but it appears the Pope is not happy with Spain's decision to legalise gay marriages in 2005.
I do not know what to think about this. The Pope can hardly say "it is OK to insult Islam", as that could initiate wholesale slaughter of Christians in countries where Islam and Christianity share the same territory, as in Nigeria and Indonesia.
But he is the most senior representative of any of the Christian churches' faiths, so his involvement in an Islam/Western dialogue would be seen as a positive step towards defusing the explosions of petulance currently being enacted by Muslims around the globe.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 19, 2006 8:07 PM
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