Regensburg address was ‘prophetic’, says Müller

Benedict XVI’s 2006 Regensburg address, which led to furious protests across the Islamic world has turned out to be “prophetic”, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said on 13 September, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

Cardinal Müller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made his comments during a lecture in Regensburg, Germany. The event was part of a week of celebrations to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Benedict’s first visit as pope to his Bavarian homeland.

During that visit, he gave a lecture in which he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor that linked Islam and  Muhammad with violence.

In the context of the situation in the world today, the cardinal said that the “political and religious authorities in Islamic countries” must find an answer as to “how the so-called Sword Verses in the Qu’ran can be reconciled with the basic right of freedom of religion”. Some radical Muslims use the verses to justify violence against people they claim are non-believers.

 “They [Islamic countries] must not only reject the use of violent means to spread a religion, but also any aims at religious-political world domination,” the cardinal emphasised. Countries where the majority believed in one religion must recognise the right of religious minorities to practise their religion, and freedom of conscience must be recognised everywhere, he said. Cardinal Müller pointed out that a positive outcome of the 2006 lecture was “A Common Word Between Us and You” – an open letter from 138 leading Islamic scholars to Christian leaders that offered dialogue on peaceful coexistence between people of different religions.