Q1) Who is the Pope?
Click the words answer1 answer2 to find out.
Q2) What did he say?
Click the words answer1 answer2 to find out.
Q3) Was it offensive?
YES
Q4) Should the Pope apologize?
YES
Q) Why should he apologize?
He gave a prepared speech to a university audience in Germany. Delving on the topic of spreading faith by force and violence the venerable pontiff quoted a 14th century Christian emperor who derided the Prophet(pbuh) and Islam. The Pope then failed to express his personal views on those derogatory remarks, implying that his views were not dissimilar to the ones he quoted.
Q) What has been the Vatican response so far?
Chief Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement."The pontiff had not intended to offend Muslims. It certainly wasn't the intention of the Pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad (holy war) and of Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers.It is clear that the Holy Father's intention is to cultivate a position of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, and that clearly includes Islam." (* this is a poor attempt to explain, no regrets no apology)
Q5) What is the Muslim response so far?
- Pakistan summoned the Vatican's ambassador to express regret over the remarks, as parliament passed a resolution condemning the comments
- The head of the Muslim Brotherhood said the remarks "aroused the anger of the whole Islamic world"
- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya condemned the Pope's comments
- In Iraq, the comments were criticised at Friday prayers by followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
- The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference said it regretted the Pope's remarks
- News Item
Q6) What should be the Muslim response? Of course we need to protest peacefully and demand an apology but more important we need to prepare ourselves to answer any concerns regarding Islam and the Prophet(pbuh).
Q7) Did Islam spread by the sword? Answer1 Answer2
Q11) What do non-Muslims say about the Prophet(pbuh) Answer
Point) Information on conversion to Islam. Info1 Info2
My letters to the Editor in the Khaleej Times a local daily is shown below
Posted by Arshad
on Saturday, September 16, 2006. 
it was all pre-planned, he did it deliberately.. Would any right minded person say this without thinking first that it would cause offence? Hes not dumb or innocent just an idiot and was aware of the consequence, it was what he expected to see..
Salam
You have a great blog. Pope has been too cowardish - if he wanted to make a statement, he should own it. If he feels he is not so learned, he should quote a higher learned person. This particular king is not known as a scholar anyway!
About Muslim reaction. This is what make people overlook Popes foolishness and think what he said is true. And there are people like Abul Ala Maudoodi and a set of followers who believe that sword is a need for Islam to grow. Shame on both sides
Thanks me:) for the comments.
Allow me to disagree with you regarding Maulana Maududi and his followers who you say believe that the sword is needed for Islam to grow.
Please visit www.jamaat.org and www.jamaateislamihind.org for a detailed study on Jamaat's approach
As Salaamu Alaikum! I agree that we should protest peacefully, and prepare ourselves to always respond in an intelligent and informed way. We should always remember how our Prophet (saw) responded to adversity, Alhamdulillah.