Pope visits mosque in Muslim outreach

AMMAN, Jordan | Pope Benedict XVI visited a mosque in the Jordanian capital Saturday, the second day of his Middle East visit, in an effort to mend fences with a Muslim world still smarting from his remarks three years ago linking the prophet Muhammad with violence.

Speaking at the new King Hussein bin Talal Mosque, the largest in Jordan, Benedict, 82, urged Christians and Muslims to work together for peace in the region.

“I firmly believe Christians and Muslims can embrace [the task of cooperation] particularly through our respective contributions to learning and scholarship, and public service,” Reuters news agency quoted him as telling Islamic leaders and diplomats at the mosque.

It was Benedict’s second visit to a mosque. He visited Istanbuls Blue Mosque during a 2006 visit to Turkey.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope did not remove his shoes or pray while in the mosque, as he did during his visit to the mosque in Turkey, but rather paused for “a respectful moment of reflection,” Reuters reported.

Catholic conservatives criticized the pope in 2006 after he prayed toward Mecca with the imam of the mosque in Istanbul.

Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed bin Talal, a cousin and top religious adviser to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, welcoming the pope to the Amman mosque, recalled Benedict’s 2006 speech in Germany that fueled widespread Muslim anger. He thanked Benedict for expressing his “regrets … for the hurt caused by this lecture to Muslims.”

Prince Ghazi, a leading figure in the “Common Word” group of Muslim scholars promoting dialogue with Christians, praised the pope for his “friendly gestures and kindly actions toward Muslims” since the 2006 speech prompted outrage.

During that lecture, the pope quoted a medieval text calling some of Muhammad’s teachings “evil and inhuman.” The remarks sparked outrage through the Muslim world. He later said the passage did not reflect his personal views.

But the spokesman of Jordan’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Jamil Abu-Bakr, insisted the pope should make a public apology - otherwise “obstacles and boundaries will remain and will overshadow any possible understanding between the pope and the Muslim world.”

The Brotherhood is Jordan’s largest opposition group. Although its presence in parliament is small, it commands a strong following, especially among poor Jordanians, because of the valuable social services it provides.

At the mosque in Amman on Saturday, the pope did not express any regret or apology to Muslims, and that left some Muslim leaders disappointed.

Muslim cleric Sheik Youssef Abu Hussein, who attended the mosque event, acknowledged the value of the popes overtures to begin a “new page” with the Muslim community, but agreed with the sentiments held by the Brotherhood and others.

“The required apology should be said clearly,” Sheik Abu Hussein said, signaling the lingering doubts among some Muslims of the popes intentions. “He should clearly admit that what he said was not appropriate about the prophet of mercy.”

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