Egyptians Call on Mubarak to Sever Relations with Vatican

Hundreds of prayers rallied at Azhar Mosque after the Friday sermons condemning the derogatory remarks against Islam which were made by Pope Benedict XVI of Vatican, with masses chanting anti Vatican cheers including “Oh, Villain Vatican, Islam is not that Cheap”.
The demonstrations were spearheaded by Ikhwan MP Dr. Mohammed el Beltagy who called on the Vatican to publicly apologize for the Pope’s statements depicting Islam as a religion of killings and bloody wars.” Then who killed 70000 Muslims in the Aqsa Mosque at the Crusade wars on the Muslim lands”, Beltagui wondered, calling on al Azhar religious establishment to expressly voice its position toward these Papal offending remarks . The demonstrators even called on President Mubarak to expel the Vatican ambassador from Egypt and close the embassy.” Where is the interfaith dialogue they are talking about day and night, or it is just a hollow phrase to deceive the peoples”?, asked independent MP Mostafa Bakry, who blamed the US and its president for emboldening other Western states to mar the image of Islam when he declared it a Crusade war.
A good example of this trend on the part of Bush is his recent statement depicting Muslims as fetishists”, Bakry added.
For his part, the Azhar preacher in his Friday speech deplored the Vatican’s ignorance of Islam which he described as a religion of peace and justice and good reason.
Benedict’s statements came within the context of his pontificated lecture on reason and religion in Germany in which he quoted excerpts of a debate between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian Muslim in the fourteenth century on Christianity and Islam.
The Pope quoted the Byzantine emperor as saying that Mohammed came only with evil and inhumanity and spread Islam with sword. The demonstrators threatened that they will continue their protests next Friday unless the Egyptian government expressly shows its position toward these Vatican’s offending phrases against Islam.