Al Qaeda militants in Iraq vowed war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters burned a papal effigy today over Pope Benedict's comments on Islam, while Western churchmen and statesmen tried to calm passions.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined a chorus of Muslim criticism of the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, calling the Pope's remarks "the latest chain of the crusade against Islam started by America's (George W.) Bush".
The Pontiff said yesterday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war. But he stopped short of retracting a speech seen as portraying Islam as a religion tainted by violence.
While some Muslims were mollified by his explanation for the speech made in Germany last Tuesday, others remained furious.
"We tell the worshipper of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said a Web statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al Qaeda.
"We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the statement, posted on Sunday on an Internet site often used by al Qaeda and other militant groups.
In Iraq's southern city of Basra, up to 150 demonstrators chanted slogans and burned a white effigy of the Pope.
"No to aggression!", "We gagged the Pope!", they chanted in front of the governor's office in the Shia city.
With some clerics calling it the start of a new Christian crusade against Islam, the Vatican has instructed its envoys in Muslim countries to explain Pope Benedict's words on Islam.
The Pope had referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the Prophet brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
But he said on Sunday this was not his view and he favoured frank dialogue with Islam. His new Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Holy See nuncios (ambassadors) in Muslim countries would visit government and religious leaders.
The European Commission called for Pope Benedict's remarks not be "deliberately taken out of context" and for freedom of speech to be respected. French President Jacques Chirac refused to criticise him, but called for a more diplomatic language.
"It is not my role or my intention to comment on the Pope's statements. I simply want to say, on a general level ... that we must avoid anything that excites tensions between peoples or between religions," Mr Chirac said on Europe 1 radio.
"We must avoid making any link between Islam, which is a great, respected and respectable religion, and radical Islamism, which is a totally different activity and one of a political nature," Mr Chirac added.