CAABU Director quoted in Guardian - Pope

From the Guardian

Chris Doyle
Director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding

"It is difficult to see anything positive coming from these comments. What was the Pope aiming to do by promoting the words of what he termed an "erudite" emperor who claimed that everything that Muhammad provided was "evil and inhuman"? There were infinitely more constructive ways to make his point about violence than to quote the rant of a 14th century emperor ... The previous Pope did much to try to win hearts and minds in the Islamic world. In one stupid line the Pope ... sent Muslim-Christian relations back decades. [He] needs to apologise at once. What is so sad is that while there have been acute political tensions between western and Islamic leaders, until now there had not been confrontation between mainstream religious leaders."

To see the text of the Pope's speech:

See also The Director's interview with the BBC