Vatican to Muslims: practice what you preach
PARIS (Reuters) - After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the
Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate
by showing more tolerance toward their Christian minorities.
Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western
newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet, including one with a bomb in his
turban. Most Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.
After criticizing both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that
followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the
rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.
Vatican prelates have been concerned by recent killings of two Catholic priests in Turkey
and Nigeria. Turkish media linked the death there to the cartoons row. At least 146
Christians and Muslims have died in five days of religious riots in Nigeria.
"If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they
have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of
State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.
"We must always stress our demand for reciprocity in political contacts with
authorities in Islamic countries and, even more, in cultural contacts," Foreign
Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo told the daily Corriere della Sera.
Reciprocity -- allowing Christian minorities the same rights as Muslims generally have in
Western countries, such as building houses of worship or practicing religion freely -- is
at the heart of Vatican diplomacy toward Muslim states.
Vatican diplomats argue that limits on Christians in some Islamic countries are far
harsher than restrictions in the West that Muslims decry, such as France's ban on
headscarves in state schools.
Saudi Arabia bans all public expression of any non-Muslim religion and sometimes arrests
Christians even for worshipping privately. Pakistan allows churches to operate but its
Islamic laws effectively deprive Christians of many rights.
Both countries are often criticized at the United Nations Human Rights Commission for
violating religious freedoms.
"ENOUGH TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK"
Pope Benedict signaled his concern when he told the new Moroccan ambassador to the Vatican
that peace can only be assured by "respect for the religious convictions and
practices of others, in a reciprocal way in all societies."
He mentioned no countries by name. Morocco is tolerant of other religions, but like all
Muslim countries frowns on conversion from Islam to another faith.
Iraqi Christians say they were well treated under Saddam Hussein's secular policies, but
believers have been killed, churches burned and women forced to wear Muslim garb since
Islamic groups gained sway after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Christians make up only a tiny fraction of the population in most Muslim countries. War
and political pressure in recent decades have forced many to emigrate from Middle Eastern
communities dating back to just after the time of Jesus.
As often happens at the Vatican, lower-level officials have been more outspoken than the
Pope and his main aides.
"Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect
ourselves," Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court,
thundered in the daily La Stampa. Jesus told his followers to "turn the other
cheek" when struck.
"The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for
oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights," he said.
Bishop Rino Fisichella, head of one of the Roman universities that train young priests
from around the world, told Corriere della Sera the Vatican should speak out more.
"Let's drop this diplomatic silence," said the rector of the Pontifical Lateran
University. "We should put pressure on international organizations to make the
societies and states in majority Muslim countries face up to their responsibilities."
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor |
