After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the
Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance toward their Christian minorities.
Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet, including one with a bomb in his turban. Most Muslims consider any images of Mohammad to be blasphemous.
After criticizing both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.
Vatican prelates have been concerned by recent killings of two Catholic priests in Turkey and Nigeria. Turkish media linked the death there to the cartoons row. At least 146 Christians and Muslims have died in five days of religious riots in Nigeria.
"If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.
"We must always stress our demand for reciprocity in political contacts with authorities in Islamic countries and, even more, in cultural contacts," Foreign Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo told the daily Corriere della Sera.
Reciprocity -- allowing Christian minorities the same rights as Muslims generally have in Western countries, such as building houses of worship or practicing religion freely -- is at the heart of Vatican diplomacy toward Muslim states.
Vatican diplomats argue that limits on Christians in some Islamic countries are far harsher than restrictions in the West that Muslims decry, such as France's ban on headscarves in state schools.
Saudi Arabia bans all public expression of any non-Muslim religion and sometimes arrests Christians even for worshipping privately. Pakistan allows churches to operate but its Islamic laws effectively deprive Christians of many rights.
Both countries are often criticized at the United Nations Human Rights Commission for violating religious freedoms.
"ENOUGH TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK"
Pope Benedict signaled his concern on Monday when he told the new Moroccan ambassador to the Vatican that peace can only be assured by "respect for the religious convictions and practices of others, in a reciprocal way in all societies."
He mentioned no countries by name. Morocco is tolerant of other religions, but like all Muslim countries frowns on conversion from Islam to another faith.
Iraqi Christians say they were well treated under Saddam Hussein's secular policies, but believers have been killed, churches burned and women forced to wear Muslim garb since Islamic groups gained sway after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Christians make up only a tiny fraction of the population in most Muslim countries. War and political pressure in recent decades have forced many to emigrate from Middle Eastern communities dating back to just after the time of Jesus.
As often happens at the Vatican, lower-level officials have been more outspoken than the Pope and his main aides.
"Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves," Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, thundered in the daily La Stampa. Jesus told his followers to "turn the other cheek" when struck.
"The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights," he said.
Bishop Rino Fisichella, head of one of the Roman universities that train young priests from around the world, told Corriere della Sera the Vatican should speak out more.
"Let's drop this diplomatic silence," said the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. "We should put pressure on international organizations to make the societies and states in majority Muslim countries face up to their responsibilities."
NIGERIA: Hard-pressed Nigerian Christians retaliate over anti-Christian violence, cartoons
The Barnabas Fund
23 February 2006
Christians in Nigeria have reached breaking-point and retaliated against Muslims. The reprisals follow an incident on Saturday 18th February when 50 Christians were killed and 30 churches burned down by Muslim rioters in the northern city of Maiduguri, Borno state. The Muslim violence was part of a worldwide expression of outrage over cartoons of Muhammad, first published in Denmark last September. Since 29th January similar attacks have been made on Christian minorities in a wide range of Muslim contexts.
In a phonecall to Barnabas Fund on 7th February the Bishop of Peshawar, Pakistan reported that two church-run schools at Mardan and at Bannu had been attacked the day before by Muslims protesting about the Danish cartoons, which were republished this year in various other European countries and Jordan. Bishop Mano Rumalshah was thankful that police intervened promptly and helped to evacuate the frightened children, and that no one was seriously injured. But he commented, "We [Pakistani Christians] have not done anything, the cartoons are nothing to do with us. They [the rioting Muslims] do not comprehend or understand that Pakistani Christians are not Westerners." In the following week, Muslims also attacked three more Christian schools in Peshawar and one in Kasur, near Lahore, as well as a Christian hospital in Peshawar.
The catalogue of cartoon-related anti-Christian violence includes the following:
* Iraq: at least 4 churches bombed, Christian university students beaten up * Lebanon: at least 1 church attacked * Libya: 1 church attacked * Nigeria: approximately 50 Christians killed, 30 churches burnt down * Pakistan: 6 Christian schools, 1 Christian hospital attacked * Syria: 3 churches attacked * Turkey: church leader shot dead
The cartoons are also thought to be a contributory factor in several other recent incidents of anti-Christian violence in Northern Nigeria in which a further two churches were attacked and at least 26 people were killed. Nigeria has a Muslim majority in the North and a Christian majority in the South; there is a history of inter-religious riots, most often started by Muslims.
There is plenty of evidence to show that many of the anti-cartoon protests have not been spontaneous, but have been deliberately orchestrated.
Just hours after warnings from Archbishop Peter Akinola, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, that his organisation might not be able to restrain "restive" Christian youths much longer, Christians in two southern cities rioted on Tuesday and Wednesday (21st-22nd February). The rioters in Onitsha, Anambra state, and Enugu, in neighbouring Enugu state, attacked Muslims, Muslim-owned shops and two mosques. An estimated 85 people were killed, mainly Muslims.
In Archbishop Akinola's statement, issued on 21st February, he also said, "It is very clear now that the sacrifices of the Christians in this country for peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths has been sadly misunderstood to be weakness. We have for a long time now watched helplessly the killing, maiming and destruction of Christians and their property by Muslim fanatics and fundamentalists at the slightest or no provocation at all.... That an incident in far away Denmark which does not claim to be representing Christianity could elicit such an unfortunate reaction here in Nigeria, leading to the destruction of Christian Churches, is not only embarrassing but also disturbing and unfortunate." For full statement please see link [1].
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, commented: "It is interesting that when Muslims attack Western embassies it is news, and when Christians retaliate against Muslim violence it is news. But when Muslims attack vulnerable Christian minorities to take revenge for publishing cartoons that are nothing to do with the Christian victims, it is barely mentioned in the media. When Christian organisations joined with Muslim organisations in the UK on 18th February to protest in London against the cartoons, did they have any concern for what Muslims are doing to Christian minorities who have absolutely no connection with the cartoons?
"While I utterly deplore the Christian counter-attacks in Nigeria - for Christians should always be people of peace not violence - Archbishop Akinola has rightly pointed out that peaceful conduct is all too often seen as weakness by Muslims. This perceived weakness makes Christians all the more likely to be targeted. Western Christian leaders and Western governments, who are eager to prevent Muslim feelings from being hurt, do not seem to have the courage to speak out about what is happening to innocent Christian minorities in the Muslim world. If they will not condemn the anti-Christian violence or even publicise it, can they be so surprised when non-Western Christians - goaded beyond endurance - finally fight back?"
PRAYER ITEMS
* Pray for an end to attacks on Christian minorities around the world by angry Muslims seeking to get revenge for the cartoons of Muhammad. Pray for Christians to respond to the attacks with love and forgiveness, not with more violence, remembering in particular the role of Christian leaders. Pray for those of all faiths who have been injured or bereaved in the recent violence in Nigeria.
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BRITISH MUSLIMS CALL FOR LAWS TO PROTECT MUHAMMAD, AND PROTEST DANISH CARTOONS
This pope is just getting warmed up. He will be shaking things in a different way than John Paul II did, but when he does, look out. I'm very happy we have Pope Benedict XVI.
I'm glad to see the Pope has spoken out and hope that leaders of other denominations and religions do so too. It's past time.
That's right, and I hope they heed this!
__________________ Your memory is our keepsake, With which we'll never part. God has you in his keeping, We have you in our hearts.
~2004 winner of The Outreach Award ~2005 co-winner of The Bronze Button Award ~March 2006 Perv of the Month ~Sept 2006, Oct 2007 - MOTM ~2007 Oct-Dec MOTQ ~2007 Female Silver Raincoat Recipient ~2007 MOTY
02-23-2006, 19:04
Vatican to Muslims: practice what you preach 
