Make what you will of this... It's always hard to see through Muslim doublespeak...
Imam of Al-Azhar only wants
'clarification', his spokesman says
Translated from the Italian service of
Imam Al-Tayyeb, and the Mosque and University of Al-Azhar.
CAIRO, Jan. 12 (AKI) - "There is no hostility nor rivalry with the Vatican. All we want is
some clarification in order to re-establish the truth", Muhammad Rifai al-Tahtawi, spokesman of the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmed Al Tayyeb, told AKI today.
[What is there to clarify???? The Pope has every right to speak in behalf of persecuted Christians, and for as long as he does not make any wild or unfounded accusations - which he has not and never would - how can anyone reproach or worse, condemn him, for speaking up as he does?]
"We esteem Pope Benedict XVI, and we have no hostility towards him," he continued.
"We consider it positive that he has asked the Arab nations to protect the Christians in the Middle East, without asking for the intervention of foreign forces".
[Now they consider it 'positive'! And yet, although Benedict XVI never once specifically asked for this in all his references to the Alexandria bombing, Al Tayyeb for two days in a row criticized the call for protection of Christians as 'interference' in Egyptian affairs! An accusation suddenly echoed on Tuesday by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, in what seemed like looking for a pretext to to diss the Pope, who knows for whatever internal political reason the Mubarak government needed to deflect pressure away... As for 'the intervention of foreign forces', an Italian commentator said what the spokesman meant was that the Pope had not invoked UN help!]
But the spokesman would not comment on the decision of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recall the Egyptian ambassador to the Vatican for consultations in Cairo, after the Pope's appeal in behalf of Christians in the Middle East.
He limited himself to saying, "It's a political question that does not concern us directly".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/01/2011 11:28]