Pope's Secretary: Europe Faces Islamic Threat

August 3, 2007

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Economic Times

Wire Service: AFP

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/Europe_faces_Islamic_threat/articleshow/2239847.cms

Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary has warned against the spread of Islam in the West in an interview with a German newspaper published on Friday.

“We cannot deny the attempts to spread Islam in the West. And we should not be too understanding and let this blind us to the threat to Europe’s identity,” Georg Gaenswein told the weekly magazine of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

“The Catholic Church sees it clearly and is not afraid to say so,” he added.Gaenswein described as “prophetic” the highly controversial speech the pope made at the University of Regensburg when he visited Germany last September in which he seemed to link Islam to violence.

“The speech was precisely meant to counter a kind of naiveté. It is clear that there is not only one Islam and the pope does not know anybody who speaks with binding authority to all Muslims,” he said.