Pope voices regret over Muslim anger

Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI yesterday voiced deep regret at outraged Muslim reaction to a speech he gave in Germany, but stopped short of retracting his remarks, arguing they had been misinterpreted.

"The Holy Father sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.

"In reiterating his respect and esteem for those who profess Islam, he hopes they will be helped to understand the correct meaning of his words ... quickly surmounting this present uneasy moment," the statement said.

In a lecture delivered Tuesday at Regensburg University, the pope spoke of a link between Islam and violence, quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor.

In an early reaction to the Vatican statement, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said it was not enough. "We feel he has committed a grave error against us and that this mistake will only be removed through a personal apology," the Brotherhood's deputy leader, Mohammad Habib, said.

'Ignorance of Islam'
The Muslim Council of Britain said the statement was a "good first step" but questioned whether it constituted "enough of an apology".

Earlier, Sunni Islam's top authority and the head of Cairo's Al Azhar university, Shaikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi, said the pope had betrayed "a clear ignorance of Islam," while Morocco said it was recalling its ambassador to the Vatican because of the pope's "offensive" remarks.

The Saudi government demanded an "urgent clarification," saying that the pope's speech had adopted the same logic "used to justify the Crusades waged against the Islamic world". Iran voiced similar outrage, warning that such remarks could only serve to ignite religious discord.

The pope's speech also caused anger in Turkey, the destination of his next foreign trip in November.