Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Cardinal Asks Muslims to Apologise

The leader of the Roman Catholics in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has called on Muslims to apologise for 9/11 and 7/7 and other atrocities carried out in their name. He made the call last week saying, "There have been no apologies for the shooting of the nun [in Somalia after the Pope made his remarks], let alone for 9/11 or the London bombings. I would like to see some reciprocal moves from the Islamic side. We shouldn't have to live in fear of attack from Muslims."

His comments obviously caused anger in the "moderate" Muslim leadership:

Last night, the cardinal's views on Islam had stirred up a new controversy, with Muslim leaders furious at the comment. They claimed that as the terrorist attacks were carried out by extremists, mainstream Muslims who had already condemned the actions had nothing to apologise for.
A small token of distancing themselves from the extremists would go a long way. Releasing a press statement takes about 5 mins and holds little weight. When will we see real action from the supposed moderate majority?

UPDATE: Shockingly, Muslims aren't happy:
His comments have been condemned by Muslim groups in the UK. Ashraf Anjum, president of the Glasgow Mosque, said the cardinal was wrong to blame the entire Muslim faith for acts by extremists.

Osama Saeed, of the Muslim Association of Britain added: "The Pope had to apologise for his own comments. I'm not sure who would apologise for the bombers to the cardinal."
Even if Muslim groups do not feel they should apologise, at least they should want to show their anger with their co-religionists. Or is Muslim anger reserved only for infidels?