Needed: A sense of irony and a clue

This is not an effective way to argue against someone who has questioned your religion's relationship to violence:

From a Daily Mail story. These are Muslims in Indian burning an effigy of the Pope. Because, you know, questioned using religion to justify violence.

But Britain's Ramadhan Foundation, a youth organisation based in Rochdale, reacted angrily to the comments, comparing the Pope unfavourably to his predecessor John Paul II.

In a statement it said: "If the Pope wanted to attack Islam and Prophet Muhammad teachings he could have been brave enough to say it personally without quoting a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor.

"The late Pope John Paul II spent over 25 years to build bridges and links with the Muslim community. He showed the world that its perception of Islam was false and that we are peace-loving people.

"The Ramadhan Foundation is disappointed that the current Pope has not followed the example of his predecessor; it is essential in today's world that we link together and encourage a wider understanding of our different faiths, celebrating our religious differences is essential in a ever expanding world."

Muhammad Umar, chairman of the foundation, said: "This attack on Islam and Prophet Muhammad by Pope Benedict is recognition that he has fallen into the trap of the bigots and racists when it comes to judging Islam on the actions of a small number of extreme elements."

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"The Pope of the Vatican joins in the Zionist-American alliance against Islam," said the leading Moroccan daily Attajdid, the main Islamist newspaper in the kingdom.

"We demand that he apologizes personally, and not through (Vatican) sources, to all Muslims for such a wrong interpretation," said Beirut-based Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of the world's top Shi'ite Muslim clerics.

Sheikh Hamza Mansour, who heads the Shura Council of the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest opposition party, said only a personal apology could rectify the "deep insult made by the provocative comments" to over 1 billion Muslims.

And in Iraq, the Pope's comments were condemned at Friday prayers by followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sheikh Salah al-Ubeidi, one of Sadr's aides, condemned "the offence to Islam and the character of the Prophet."

"This is the second time such an offence has been give before Ramadan," he said, referring to last year's publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper that led to violent protests by Muslims around the world.

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Militant Islamic websites also attacked the Pope, and the Muslim Council of Britain called on him to clarify his remarks urgently.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the MCB, said:

"One would expect a religious leader such as the Pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations between the followers of Islam and Catholicism."

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said Muslims must learn to enter into dialogue without "crying foul".

He said: "The Pope is a distinguished scholar and one unlikely to say offensive things. If he quoted something said 600 years ago we should not assume that this represents the Pope's beliefs about Islam today.

"But Muslims as well as Christians must learn to enter into dialogue without crying foul.

"We live in perilous times and we must not only separate religion from violence but also not give religious legitimacy to violence in any shape or form."