Vatican suggests limits to offending religions, condemns violent acts By John Thavis
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Pakistani Christians from the Minority Front gr oup protes t against the publication of cartoons during a rall y in Lahore , Pakistan, Feb. 7. Thousands of Muslims rallied in Pakistan 's conservative northwest near the Afghan border Feb. 7 to protest against cartoons dep icting the prop het Mohammed p ublished in Western newspapers.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican , commenting on a series of satirical newspaper cartoons th at have outraged Muslims , said freedom of expression does not include the right to offend religious sentiments. At the same time , the Vatican said, violent reactions are equally deplorable. "Intolerance — wherever it comes from , whether real or verbal , action or reaction — always constitutes a serious threat to peace, " Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement Feb. 4. The cartoons , which make fun of the prop het Mohammed , were fi rst published in a Danish newspaper last fall and have recently been reprinted in several European papers . Islamic anger has grown, along with popular demonstrations. In earl y February protesting Muslims burned or vandalized Western embassy buildings in Indonesia, Syria and Lebanon. The Vatican statement , without getting into the details of the cartoons , said "freedom of thought or expression ... cannot imp ly a right to offend the religious sentiments of believers , " no matter what the religion. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION , page 7
Jordan's king talks of Islamic moderation to Christian group By Patricia Zapor WASHINGTON (CNS) — King Abdullah II of Jordan took his efforts to promote moderation in Islam to the evangelical-dominated National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, earning a standing ovation with a speech that quoted the Bible as much as the Quran. He called upon people of faith to witness to its positive role in public life by being an example of "the princip les transgressed by those who oppose us. " "In every generation, people of faith are tested, " King Abdullah said. "In our generation, the greatest challenge comes from violent extremists who seek to divide and conquer. Extremism is a political movement under religious cover. "Its adherents want nothing more than to pit us against each other, denying all that we have in common, " he continued. "We must therefore heed the words of the New Testament: 'Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'" After ascending to the throne of Jordan upon the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein , King Abdullah has aggressively prodded Islamic leaders toward a uniform message reflecting the moderate beliefs of the vast majority of Muslims, as an anti-
dote to the Islamic extremism associated with terrorism. In July 2005, he convened an International Islamic Summit to clarify what Islam does and doesn 't allow, who is a Muslim and who can speak for Islam. What resulted is known as the Amman Message, a declaration recognizing the common principles of eight traditional schools of Islamic religious law. It was signed by more than 180 scholars representing 45 countries. King Abdullah followed that effort with the Amman Interfaith Message , intended to both defuse tensions among Muslims , Christians and Jews and to work toward full acceptance and good will among them. In speeches last fall at The Catholic University of America and to a group of American Jewish leaders, the king outlined an interfaith message based upon the shared beliefs of Islam , Christianity and Judaism: belief in one God, worship and devotion to God, and love and justice toward other human beings. At the prayer breakfast Feb. 2, King Abdullah described the principles in a "Reaffirmation of True Islam " adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last year, as part of a 10-year plan for the future of the Islamic world.
"This strikes at the very roots of extremism by denying its Islamic legitimacy, and consolidates the traditional middle ground of Islam, to which the vast majority of Muslims belong, " he said. "It constitutes a full frontal assault on extremist distortions of Islam by exposing the falsity of tiieir ideologies to the light of truth. " Nothing would p lease extremists more than for terrorist events, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, last summer 's subway and bus bombings in London and Spain 's trai n bombings , to reinforce the idea of a "clash of civilizations , " King Abdullah said. But the falsity of the notion that religious differences are responsible for such a clash "is made clear to all by the extremist bombings in the Islamic world ... in Jordan , Egypt, Morocco , Saudi Arabia and more. " Extremists in Iraq kill Muslims every day, he said. "Their targets are not Christians, not Jews, not Americans or Europeans , but indigenous innocent Muslims." Such violence stems from hatred, he said, not from true religious faith. "They do not preach the Islam of the Quran or the PRAYER BREAKFAST, page 5
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