Geneva/Islamabad: Islamic countries asked the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to examine the question of religious tolerance on Monday, saying that Pope Benedict's remarks on Islam threaten to alienate Muslims from the West.
Masood Khan, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said Muslim countries were "reassured that the Pope has expressed regrets, distanced himself from the text that caused offense and renewed his invitation for a frank and sincere dialogue with mutual respect.
But Khan, speaking on behalf of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said the speech was nevertheless a mistake – a sentiment echoing the response of many Muslims around the world.
"The statement was regrettable as it showed lack of understanding, albeit inadvertent, about Islam and its prophet," Khan told the 47-country council, the United Nations' human rights watchdog.
"Such a tendency also threatens deeper alienation between the West and the world of Islam and hurts the ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and harmony amongst religions."
He asked the council to set aside time during its session that opened Monday to address "religious tolerance and related issues." The council is meeting until October 6.
"We hope that any attempts to revive medievalism would be replaced with the enlightened and reformed approach to forge strong relationships between Christianity and Islam," Khan said.
Protesters in several Muslim countries on Monday demanded an apology from Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence, while Malaysia, which heads the world's biggest Islamic bloc, said his prior expressions of regret were not enough.
Even in China, where the government exerts tight controls over religious activities, a top religious official said Benedict had insulted the nation's Muslims.
Anger over Benedict's remarks in Germany last week – when he quoted a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam founder as ''evil and inhuman'' and referred to spreading Islam ''by the sword'' – continued despite repeated expressions of regret from the Vatican and the Pope himself.
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The Vatican already has issued two separate statements expressing regret over the remarks, which caused one of the biggest international crises involving the Holy See in decades.
The uproar is the most serious such crisis since February, when a wave of violent protests swept the Muslim world following the publication in European newspapers of cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad. Muslims denounced the drawings as offensive to their religion.
Benedict's remarks also were greeted with anger, and protesters in several Muslim countries continued to demand a full apology on Monday.
''His apology is not sufficient because he did not say that what he said was wrong,'' said Uzair Ahmed, from Pasban-e-Hurriyat, a Pakistani political group.
In Pakistan, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on national television that the Pope had apparently forgotten that it was Christianity that was spread by the sword during the Crusades.
Malaysia, which chairs the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, has expressed hopes that the pope's comments do ''not reflect a new trend for the Vatican policy toward the Islamic religion.''
''The statement by the Pope saying he is sorry about the angry reaction is inadequate to calm the anger, more so because he is the highest leader of the Vatican,'' Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, dozens of demonstrators marched through the streets.
''His comments really hurt Muslim all over the world,'' said Umar Nawawi of the radical Islamic Defenders' Front. ''We should remind him not to say such things, which can only fuel a holy war.''
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