Pope's words used as excuse for violence.

(From Yorkshire Post)

From: B Bates, The Fairways, Keighley.

Your editorial "A papal apology" (Yorkshire Post, September 18) was spot on. Once again the world has to endure violence and hatred from many Muslims, this time over a small part of a speech made by the Pope which was taken out of context.

We are constantly reminded that Islam is a religion of peace, but woe betide anyone, even the Pope, who makes remarks which can be seized upon to provoke a violent response from not a small number of Muslims.

From: RJ Marshall, Wingate Avenue, Keighley.

Further to the Pope's comments about Islam, the first, and crucial, point is that His Holiness did not make any personal comment about that faith.

He merely reiterated his own belief that the use of violence in promoting religion is unacceptable.

What Pope Benedict did do was to quote a 14th-century Christian emperor's opinion. When people assume that the quoting a source is, of necessity, tantamount to agreeing with the words quoted, then the boundaries of reason and sanity have been irrevocably crossed.

Ali Barth Koglu's remark, "I do not think any good will come from... a person who has such ideas about Islam's prophet" might be true, but that person is surely not the Pope.

That said, those (of any faith or none) who wish to deny all and any propensity to violence among at least some of those who count themselves devout Muslims, should refer to Patrick Sookhdeo's recent Spectator article, entitled "The myth of moderate Islam", in which the writer unequivocally states that there is "a mass of contradictory texts in the Koran" and that millions of Muslims are gentle and peace-loving, in response to the pacific and charitable texts. He also argues that some respond more readily to the quote from the Koran: "Against them make ready your strength... to strike terror into the enemies" (A Yusuf Ali's translation).

By the same token, though, many devout and charitable Roman Catholics cannot deny the burning of Bruno, the Crusades and the gagging of Galileo, to say nothing of the iniquities of the …