Schönborn wants Muslim leaders to speak out on Islamist terrorism

Many people rightly expect Muslim leaders openly to condemn Islamist terrorism, as at the moment terrorism has an Islamist face, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said this week.

“At the moment, rightly or wrongly, terror has an Islamist face. The terrorists are not Christians, ex-Christians or members of other religions. They are Muslims. That is a huge problem for Islam, which it must face. Many people rightly expect the Islamic authorities to take up a clear position,” Cardinal Schönborn told the Austrian daily Der Standard, adding that he, too, expected Muslim leaders to address the problem of Islamic terrorism. Christianity also had a “nasty” history of violence, he recalled, but it had come to terms with it.

The cardinal also discussed the present inner-church opposition to Pope Francis, which he said was “considerable”, amounting to “an inner-church polarisation”. He had been impressed by the Pope’s words to him on the subject. “We must try to win over the opposition lovingly,” Francis had told the cardinal.