Vatican Responds to Muslims' Letter

Fri, Oct 19, 2007 at 1:04:11 pm PDT

A top Vatican official has replied to that Muslim letter that many see as a veiled threat, by making some pointed comments about the one-sided “peace” they’re offering: Cardinal signals firm Vatican stance with Muslims.

PARIS (Reuters) - The top Vatican official for Islam has praised a novel Muslim call for dialogue but said real theological debate with them was difficult as they saw the Koran as the literal word of God and would not discuss it in depth.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, in an interview on Friday with the French Catholic daily La Croix, also said Christians would have to discuss curbs on building churches in the Islamic world in the dialogue advocated by 138 Muslim scholars in the appeal.

In this article, Reuters religion writer Tom Heneghan makes another one of their patented politically correct assertions with no evidence:

It was unprecedented because Islam has no central authority to speak for all believers, especially not the silent minority that does not agree with radicals whose preaching of jihad and rejection of other faiths often dominates the headlines.

A “silent minority?” Note to Reuters: your Freudian slip is showing.