Vatican City - Muslim anger at Pope Benedict XVI’s comments linking Islam with violence showed the first signs of abating on Tuesday as Iran’s hardline president voiced his ‘respect’ for the pope and religious leaders met for inter-faith talks in Rome.
Rome’s top Muslim religious official said the pontiff’s apology to Islam had opened the way for fresh dialogue between religions.
Sami Salem, the imam of Rome’s Grand Mosque, said the pontiff had ‘stepped back’ with his apology on Sunday for linking Islam with violence, and this was a ‘positive signal for the development of dialogue.’
‘Now the time is ripe for a dialogue between the different religions,’ the imam said in an interview with Rome’s radio 101.
Salem was speaking before an inter-faith meeting in the afternoon with Vatican cardinal Paul Poupard and Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, hosted organised by Rome city hall.
Salem said he hoped Tuesday’s meeting would open ‘a new phase of love and understanding between the religions.’
His words were in marked contrast to a statement on Monday in which he said the pope’s statement had ‘set back by years’ the progress of inter-religious dialogue.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a conciliatory tone during a visit to Roman Catholic-majority Venezuela, saying the pope had ‘modified’ his remarks that had offended Muslims worldwide.
‘We respect the pope and all those interested in peace and justice,’ Ahmadinejad told a news conference before departing Caracas. ‘I understand that he has modified the remarks he made.’
On Sunday, the pope said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the reaction to a speech he made last week in which he quoted an obscure medieval text that criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as ‘evil and inhuman.’
The speech sparked several days of protests in Muslim countries against the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Though anger appeared to be subsiding, police in Britain were bracing for violence against Christian targets and possible anti-Muslim reprisals, stepping up their patrols of both churches and mosques, a spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police told AFP.
There have been no incidents of violence in Britain as a result of the anger caused by the pope’s remarks, though London police are investigating whether a Muslim protest outside Westminster Cathedral breached laws on incitement to violence.
Australia, with a growing Muslim population, has also escaped violence, but Sydney Archbishop George Pell said the reaction in parts of the Muslim world to the Pope’s remarks bore out fears over the link between Islam and violence.
‘The violent reactions in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict’s main fears,’ Pell said in a statement late Monday.
‘They showed the link for many Islamists between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and actual violence.’
Ameer Ali, who heads the group of moderate Muslims set up to advise the government, rejected Pell’s criticisms.
‘The point is, Pope Benedict quoted a most inappropriate quote at a most inappropriate time,’ he said.
Rome left-wing mayor Walter Veltroni said Tuesday’s inter-faith initiative was intended to be ‘a new contribution from Rome to the affirmation of the values of living together peacefully and reciprocal respect’.
Other well-known Jewish, Muslim and Catholic figures are also to take part in the meeting.
Cardinal Poupard last week called on ‘the good-willed Muslim friends’ to read the whole of the pope’s controversial speech before reacting to it.
To that end, the Vatican mouthpiece ‘L’Osservatore Romano’ departed from tradition by printing the pope’s speech in Arabic on its front page on Monday night.
The Italian language daily also printed Sunday’s papal apology in Arabic and in English.