Who could have predicted such outrage when the pope decided to read quotes from the medieval text? Well, just about anyone who is following world events. Is the Vatican ever going to move on from being hate-mongers or is that going to continue being the focus of the Vatican? It's 2006, almost 2007 so let's think about how we are going to bridge cultural divides instead of making them larger. Haven't we had enough?
Salih Kapusuz, deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet or, worse, a deliberate distortion."He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages," Kapusuz told Turkish state media. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."
The outrage has forced an apology of sorts from the Vatican:
``The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers,'' said Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in a statement.
