Security alert as Muslim leaders reject Pope's apology

By Aussiegirl

Irony obviously is not a strong point in the Islamic world as Muslims continue to rage, demonstrate, threaten, burn and kill in the name of their peaceful religion. There's nothing like proving the Pontiff's point.

Security alert as Muslim leaders reject Pope's apology - World - smh.com.au

THE Italian Interior Ministry has urged police to step up security around the Vatican as Muslim anger continued over the Pope's use of a medieval quotation on Islam and violence.

Marksmen were deployed in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence, yesterday. In Rome, visitors to St Peter's Basilica faced random bag searches.

Muslim leaders rejected the Pope's attempt on Sunday to apologise over his remarks. A spokesman for the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "In Hamas we do not view the statement attributed to the Pope as an apology."

Al-Qaeda in Iraq posted a statement on the internet threatening to "smash the cross" and issuing a warning to the Pope. "We say to the servant of the cross: wait for defeat." The statement quoted the prophet Muhammad, who promised Muslims they would "conquer Rome … as they conquered Constantinople".

Hundreds protested in the Iraqi city of Basra yesterday, burning an effigy of the pontiff, calling for an apology and demanding he be tried in an international court.

[...]Before the Pope attempted to mollify Muslim groups, there were attacks on churches in the West Bank, and an Italian nun working at a children's hospital in Mogadishu was killed in an attack that one Islamist source said could be linked to the dispute.