Pope strikes conciliatory tone in Turkey
Stresses need for dialogue with Muslims
ANKARA, Turkey -- Pope Benedict XVI, who sparked Muslim anger in September when he quoted a 14th-century ruler's characterization of Islam as a religion spread by violence, reached further back for more conciliatory words yesterday as he began a four-day visit to Turkey, his first papal trip to a Muslim country.
In a speech that stressed the need for honest and open dialogue between Christians and Muslims, Benedict recalled the words of Pope Gregory VII, who in 1076 wrote a letter of thanks to a North African Muslim ruler for his benevolence to Christians.
The earlier pope declared, in the lines Benedict quoted, that the two faiths owed each other special kindness "because we believe in one God, albeit in a different manner, and because we praise him and worship him every day as the creator and ruler of the world."
The pope reiterated his criticism of violence in the name of faith, while avoiding singling out Islam. In a separate speech to the diplomatic corps, he called on all religious leaders to "utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion" and referred to the "disturbing" violence in the Middle East. And he called religious freedom a necessity, a pointed remark in Turkey, where the Christian minority and observant Muslims each chafe in different ways against state limits on religion.
Turkish officials, too, made conciliatory if not extravagantly warm gestures. In a last-minute change of plans, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had said he was too busy to meet the pope, met him briefly at the Ankara airport before leaving for a NATO summit in Latvia and expressed "happiness" at his visit.
The pope told Erdogan he supported Turkey's bid to join the European Union, Erdogan told reporters afterwards. The prime minister also said the pope had "reiterated his view of Islam as peaceful and affectionate."
Turkey's religious affairs minister, Ali Bardakoglu, who has repeatedly called the pope's September remarks "unacceptable," praised the visit as "a positive step" but also salted his welcome speech with reminders that religious leaders should not be divisive.
Sharing a podium with the pontiff, the minister, who oversees the heavily state-regulated practice of Islam in this country that is 99 percent Muslim, called on Christians and Muslims to use their common values to fight violence, moral decline, and modern alienation.
But he also made what seemed to be pointed references to the pope's lecture at the University of Regensburg in September. Benedict then cited a Christian Byzantine ruler in what is now Turkey, who was besieged by Muslim armies that would eventually consolidate the area under the Ottoman Empire, as saying that Islam had brought the world "evil and inhumanity" and was spread "by the sword."
Bardakoglu said "Islamophobia," which he defined as a view that Islam encourages violence and terrorism and was "spread by the sword," is "gradually increasing.
"As religious leaders we must refuse to be instruments of the tensions of international politics and instead try to contribute to solving the problems of humanity," he said.
The pope was first invited to Turkey by Ecumenical
But after the pope's September remarks, and at a time when Turkey is trying to become the first majority-Muslim country to enter the European Union, the trip took on a different significance, which the pope seemed to acknowledge yesterday.
On the plane from Rome, he told reporters, "We know the scope of this trip is dialogue, brotherhood, and the struggle for understanding among cultures and religions, and reconciliation. All of us feel the same responsibility in this difficult moment in history." He also called Turkey "the meeting place between modern democracy and Islam."
In addition to citing the 11th century pope, Benedict quoted his predecessor, John Paul II, who on a 1979 visit to Turkey called on religions to work together for social justice and peace, and Pope John XXIII, who had been a Vatican envoy to Turkey in the 1930s and declared simply, "I love the Turks."
But the pontiff did not issue the apology many Turks and other Muslims have demanded.
After Muslims attacked churches in scattered incidents and a priest and a nun were killed in the aftermath, the pope expressed regret that his statements in Germany sparked violence. But he did not back away from the speech itself, which argued that Christian faith is based on reason and cited violent conversion to Islam as an example of irrationality in religion. Muslim leaders objected because he did not stress that violence and coercion have also been used in the name of Christianity, as in the Spanish Inquisition.
Analysts of the Vatican say Benedict's style is more direct -- even confrontational -- than that of John Paul II, who took a soft approach to interfaith dialogue through frequent meetings. By contrast, they say, the current pontiff, who has said different groups of Muslim leaders run the gamut from "noble" to violent, wants to engage with Muslim leaders about issues of violence.
"His belief is that those bridges have been built and now it's time to walk over them," John Allen, a longtime analyst for Catholic publications, told CNN yesterday .
The pope yesterday called for "authentic dialogue between Christians and Muslims, based on truth and inspired by a sincere wish to know one another better, respecting our differences and recognizing what we have in common."
Illustrating the complexity of Turkish identity, the pontiff's first official act on a trip focused on dialogue with Islam was to visit the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the resolutely secular founder of the Turkish republic whose portrait adorns most offices and restaurants in this country.
Attended by an honor guard of Turkish marines in white helmets, long coats, and gaiters, Benedict walked briskly up the steps of the stark stone building dedicated to the man who restricted Muslim practice and abolished some traditional dress as part of his campaign to modernize and Westernize the country.
From the minarets of Ankara's many mosques the sound of the afternoon call to prayer could be heard in the distance.
