MB Chairman Condemns Pope’s Statements

Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohamed Mahdi Akef expressed his anger over statements of Pope of Vatican Benedict XVI which the Chairman depicted as offending to Islam and Prophet Mohamed (PBUH). The Chairman said that the Pope’s statements are a mirror image of the wide range distorted picture of Islam in the West, depicting this view as reflecting ignorance of Islamic teachings. He lamented that while the world sages now call for opening channels for interfaith dialogue for common ground and cooperating on issues of common interests, the Pope’s statements come to add fuel to fire and trigger anger within the Muslim world and show that the West with its politicians and clerics are hostile to Islam. The MB Chairman wondered how the Pope, who is the highest authority in the West, issues such statements which could trigger wars among the followers of religions and threaten international peace, calling on him to apologize for these statements and start an in depth and fair study of Islam.