Who is advising the Pope?

Tensions were stirred up today around the world when news of Pope Benedict XVI’s ‘ill advised’ comments ‘quoting’ the long dead Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II about the jihad – or ‘holy war’. Predictably the Muslim world took offence, and sadly more predictably this was followed by the burning of effigies of the Pope and riots in many countries.

The Vatican said the pope did not intend the remarks — made in Germany on Tuesday during an address at a university — to be offensive.

Benedict quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, said Benedict’s remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or a deliberate distortion.

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz was quoted as saying by the state-owned Anatolia news agency. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."

Pakistan’s parliament unanimously adopting a resolution condemning the pope for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam and the Foreign Ministry summoning the Vatican ambassador.

We find it deeply perplexing that the Vatican insiders could have advised the Pope so badly – the timing and wording of the Popes comments is inflammatory, and could be veiwed as being as ‘ignorant and ill informed’ as George Bush declaring a ‘Crusade against Terror’. The Pope, as well as Bush are representatives and ambassadors, whether elected by the people or some divine intervention, either way their advisors should be better prepared and understand to consequences of every ‘nuance’ of what these world leaders say.

In the Muslim countries the reaction has, sadly, been more than predictable, in many cases the governments live a precarious semi-dictatorial existence, so must be ‘seen’ to be pandering to the vastly uneducated masses that they subvert in daily life. Pakistan is a powder keg, India is a mess from a law and order perspective, but Turkey – which was one of the first countries to react strongly to the Popes strange outburst – well, Turkey ‘is a secular state’ so to some degree has now shown its true colours. We worry more now that Turkey’s chances of ever joining the EU will slip further now it has been shown to be ‘less than secular’.

We hope that the Pope hasn’t inherited Mr Bush’s propensity for ‘engaging mouth first and brain later’.