Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani's Statement about Pope's Baseless Remarks Against Islam

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate the Merciful

     Baseless sayings and allegations of Pope Benedict XVI who is leading apparently one of the Christian sects caused extreme anger, worry and surprise. Unfortunately what he has stated is in no way coherent and consistent with Islam's logic and spirit. His statements show they have either been dictated to him or he is so unaware and ignorant of the religion of Islam that one must feel sorry for his followers. In a situation in which leaders of divine religions must be vigilant not to fall into the pitfall of imperialists and warmongers the question which arises here is that: why has the pontiff raised such unwarranted, baseless and irrational allegations? Theologians, religious scholars and scripture experts know very well that Islam and the Holy Quran are the most valid proofs on the basis of Christianity and other divine religions and books. 

     We request him to attend religious schools for sometime and acquire knowledge of Islam with the help of learned Muslim scholars. We can easily prove for him that Islam is the religion of peace and mercy. One of Quran's most glorious verses is the verse 12 of Al-An'am chapter which says:

(He has ordained mercy on Himself). Pope Benedict XVI should spend several years to understand this verse.

     His statements about Jihad, holy war, emanate from his lack of knowledge and understanding from the reality of Jihad. Obviously he has erroneously taken the Islamic Jihad for what the US government has created and named as 'terrorism'.  We wonder why he who is considering himself leader of a divine religion denies God's will outright under the pretext of intellect and logic.

     We advise him to desist from such deviation and conspiracy in the last span of his life and try to achieve guidance and lead the Christians in the right manner.

Muhammad Fazel Lankarani

16/9/2006