Pope Francis says he doesn’t like to refer to violence carried out by Muslims as “Islamic violence” because there’s violence carried out by people from all religions.
Advertisement
“I think it is not right to identity Islam with violence”, the pope told reporters traveling with him.
“It’s not right to identify Islam with violence”.
Pope Francis greets faithful as he arrives to the Campus Misericordiae during World Youth Day in Brzegi near Krakow, Poland, July 31, 2016.
He suggested that the emphasis placed on material wealth has left many members of the global community feeling disenfranchised, especially Muslim youth. They don’t have work, and they turn to drugs and alcohol. “They go [abroad] and enroll in fundamentalist groups”.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Pope Francis: Worship of money helps terrorism to grow”. The love and adoration of money is a “basic terrorism against all of humanity” he said, and has replaced love between humans.
“There is war for money”. There is war for natural resources. “There is war for the domination of peoples”, he said on Wednesday. “Some might think it is war of religion”.
Francis defended his decision not to name Islam when condemning the brutal jihadist murder of a Catholic priest in France in the latest of a string of recent attacks in Europe claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
“If I have to talk about Islamic violence I have to talk about Christian violence”.
“Not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent”.
“There is news about someone killing his fiancee or his mother-in-law, or committing other crimes”, Francis added, noting that the perpetrators of these crimes were often “baptized Catholics”.
The pontiff expressed his view that every religion has its own fundamentalist group, including that of Catholicism.
Advertisement
The pope’s rhetoric on extremists is somewhat similar to the Obama administration’s. He called for continued support of immigration policy and acceptance of refugees in European countries.
