TURKEY: The man who in 1981 tried to assassinate Pope John Paul yesterday warned Pope Benedict not to go ahead with his planned trip to Turkey in November.
"As someone who knows these matters well, I say your life is in danger," Mehmet Ali Agca said from a Turkish prison yesterday. "Don't come to Turkey," he continued.
Agca (48) served 19 years in an Italian jail following the attempted papal assassination in May 1981 and a further five years in a Turkish jail for the 1979 murder of a left-wing journalist.
He was released on parole last January 12th, only to have this revoked almost immediately.
In New York yesterday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took an unexpectedly conciliatory line towards the pope, saying that now "there is no problem".
On Monday Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Pope Benedict of joining a US-led "crusade" against Islam.
Speaking during the weekly general audience in St Peter's Square yesterday, Pope Benedict said he did not intend to endorse a negative view of Islam when he quoted from medieval emperor Manuel II Paleologus during last week's trip to Germany, but acknowledged his remarks were open to misinterpretation.
He expressed "deep respect" for Islam and called for dialogue among religions.
"I hope that on several occasions during the visit [to Germany] . . . my deep respect for great religions, in particular for Muslims - who worship the one God and with whom we are engaged in defending and promoting together social justice, moral values, peace and freedom for all men - has emerged clearly," he said.
In the September 12th address at Regensburg University, where he had been a theology professor, Pope Benedict quoted Manuel II Paleologus as describing some of Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman", particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith".
The pope said yesterday: "This quote unfortunately lent itself to be misunderstood."
He continued that "for the careful reader of my text, however, it is clear that in no way did I wish to make my own the negative words of the medieval emperor.
"I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason, go together," he added.
"I trust that after the initial reaction, my words at the University of Regensburg can constitute an impulse and encouragement toward positive, even self-critical dialogue, both among religions and between modern reason and Christian faith," he said.
It was the second time in the past four days that Pope Benedict attempted to personally clarify his intentions and defuse the anger that followed his Regensburg address in Muslim countries.
On Sunday, he said he was "deeply sorry" about the reaction to his quoting the words of the emperor and stressed they did not reflect his own opinions.
The pope's safety has become a major issue amid the uproar over his use of the Manuel II Paleologus quotes.
According to Italian media reports, yesterday plainclothes police dressed as tourists were assigned to mix with the tens of thousands of people who had gathered in St Peter's Square for the general audience.
Police marksmen were reported to have been deployed on roofs overlooking the square and there was speculation that the pope was wearing a flak jacket under his robes.
However, amid the tight security Pope Benedict kept up his usual Wednesday routine.
He arrived in an open jeep, waving and blessing the crowd, and at the end he remained in the piazza of St Peter's Square to be greeted by some of the faithful.
Italian police, who help provide security at the Vatican, had their numbers increased over recent days out of concern that Muslim anger could cause St Peter's to become a terrorist target.
However, Rome prefect Achille Serra said yesterday that "there is no specific threat".
In Tunisia, it was reported that Tuesday's edition of the French newspaper Le Figaro had been confiscated because it ran an article by philosopher Robert Redeker, who described the Koran as a "book of unprecedented violence" and accused Muslims of seeking to intimidate the West.
