Pope invites Muslims to calm anger

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI has invited ambassadors from Muslim nations to meet him on Monday in a bid to calm anger over his use of a medieval text saying their religion was spread by violence.

"The purpose of this meeting is to relaunch dialogue with the Islamic world," a senior Vatican official said on Friday, after invitations were sent for the meeting on Monday at 1000 GMT at the pope's summer palace in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome.

Islamic diplomats accredited to the Holy See said they hoped the meeting would help restore trust between the Roman Catholic Church and Muslims angered by the pope's speech last week in Germany.

"We welcome it and are definitely going to participate," Iran's deputy ambassador to the Holy See, Ahmad Faihma, told Reuters.

"This is a positive signal from the Vatican. I know that this will improve relations with the Islamic world."

"This meeting will be very important, especially in these days, to try to stop every action that is not good," Fathi Abuabed, head of international relations at the Arab League's Vatican mission, told the agency.

Since making his controversial speech last week in his native country, quoting a 14th-century emperor's thoughts about Islam, the pontiff has made a series of increasingly apologetic statements.

On Wednesday, Benedict said the now controversial quotes regarding Muslims that he made were "able to perhaps be misunderstood" and for the "attentive reader they would be clear," he told an audience in St. Peter's Square.

The medieval emperor's "negative words" did not "express my personal convictions," Benedict said.

During the speech to professors last Tuesday, the 79-year-old pontiff quoted Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus when he said, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Global reaction from Muslims has been strong, prompting Italian police to raise the alert level around the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo, a police spokesman said. Protests have been staged worldwide.

The pope, who on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" for the reaction to comments he made, said Wednesday the emperor's words did not reflect how he himself felt. He said the intent of his remarks were to call for a dialogue on the role of religions in modern life.

"I hope that in several occasions during the visit ... my deep respect for great religions, in particular for Muslims -- who worship the one God and with whom we are engaged in defending and promoting together social justice, moral values, peace and freedom for all men -- has emerged clearly," Benedict said during his weekly audience at the Vatican.

"I trust that after the initial reaction, my words at the university of Regensburg can constitute an impulse and encouragement toward positive, even self-critical dialogue both among religions and between modern reason and Christian faith," the pope told thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square.

On Sunday the pope said he hoped his remarks and the Vatican's explanation Saturday were enough to "appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect."

But an al Qaeda linked militant group this week vowed a war against the "worshippers of the cross" in response to the pope's speech.

"We tell the worshipper of the cross (the pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said an Internet statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al Qaeda, according to the Reuters news agency.

"We shall break the cross and spill the wine. ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome. ... God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the statement. -- The Associated Press

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