The newly appointed head of the Vatican office that specializes in relations with Muslims pledged today to back the moderate forces within Islam to improve dialogue and help defeat extremist groups that encourage terrorism.
"We must help our Muslim friends rediscover the roots of their religion and therefore favor these moderate Muslims achieve a dialogue that will bring a civil and harmonious cohabitation," Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said.
Pope Benedict XVI, who had disbanded the office a year ago, reopened it Monday and announced he was appointing Tauran, the Vatican's foreign affairs chief from 1990 to 2003, to head it.
Church relations with Muslims were badly strained after a speech by Benedict in September that linked Islam to violence. Benedict later said he regretted that Muslims were offended by his remarks.
Speaking at a Rome presentation of Aspenia magazine, published by the Italian chapter of the Aspen Institute, Tauran said that radicals in the Muslim world who encourage violence have distorted their own religion.
"This Islam is the most extremist one, which encourages terrorism, and which, to say the truth, is not the real Islam," he said.
AP