Cardinal Pell offends Muslims, again
Jun 24, 2006
Cardinal George Pell has declared yet again Islam is more warlike than Christianity, this time to a US Catholic newspaper.
(AAP, Jun 6, 2006) The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney told the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) Australia hadn't been affected much by Islamic threat following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, but this could change depending "on how many terrorist attacks" Muslim fundamentalists could "bring off successfully", Fairfax newspapers report.
In the interview conducted in Rome with well-known NCR reporter John L Allen, Dr Pell said "the million-dollar question" was whether intolerance was a modern distortion of Islam or arose out of internal logic.
"It's difficult to find periods of tolerance in Islam," Australia's top Catholic was quoted as saying.
advertisement
"I'm not saying that they're not there, but a good deal of what is asserted is mythical."
It is the second time in a month that Dr Pell has made controversial remarks about Islam.
In early April, the religious leader commented that the Koran contained "invocations to violence" and that Islam was an intolerant faith.
The newspapers quoted Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad as saying Dr Pell had displayed his misunderstanding of Islam.
Dr Pell was in Rome last week for meetings of the Vox Clara Commission, a body of English-speaking bishops advising the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on liturgical translation issues.
Cardinal Pell offends Muslims, again