Berlin, Germany, Aug 12, 2016 / 05:01 am
A Vatican bishop spoke out last week stressing that while few Muslims are terrorists, there are passages in the Quran advocating violence that can't be ignored, and must be clarified from within the Muslim community.
"It would be naive to pretend that there are not certain episodes in the Koran and the Hadith that may lend themselves to a violent interpretation," Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said Aug. 5.
He added that "how the Muslim community worldwide can give a peaceful hermeneutic to these passages is a task which I imagine will be made more difficult with too much pressure 'from outside,'" and that thus "I wouldn't dream of telling Muslims how to interpret their faith."
"But those who want to work towards that end from within will find a strong ally and friend in the Catholic Church, ready to accompany on the way."