ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE: Pope Francis on
Sunday said he won't label Islam as "terrorist" because that would be
unfair and not true.
Reporters aboard the papal plane
flying him home after a pilgrimage to Poland that began the day after
extremists slit the throat of an elderly priest celebrating Mass in a
French church, asked him why he never uses the world "Islam" to describe
terrorism or other violence.
While in Poland, Francis
made an unscheduled stop at a church in Krakow to implore God to protect
people from the “devastating wave” of terrorism in many part of the
world.
Francis replied that "it's not right to identify Islam with violence. It's not right and it's not true."
He added: "I believe that in every religion there is always a little fundamentalist group."
"I
don't like to talk of Islamic violence because every day, when I go
through the newspapers, I see violence, this man who kills his
girlfriend, another who kills his mother-in-law,” Francis said, in
apparent reference to crime news in the predominantly Catholic country
of Italy.
"And these are baptized Catholics. If I speak of Islamic violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence."
Noting he has spoken with imams, he concluded: "I know how they think, they are looking for peace."
As for the militant Islamic State (IS) group, he said it "presents itself with a violent identity card, but that's not Islam."
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