Gazans warn pope to accept Islam
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Citing the words of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim religious leaders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday warned Pope Benedict XVI that he must "accept" Islam if he wanted to live in peace.

The warning, the first of its kind, came as many Christians in the West Bank expressed anger over a spate of attacks on churches in protest against remarks made by the pope about the Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad. the rest


Muslim anger spreads to South Asia
September 19, 2006

Extremists called yesterday for an Islamic army to march on Rome because of remarks by Pope Benedict XVI, while a well-known Muslim firebrand said in London that the pontiff should face "capital punishment."

Elsewhere, Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks and protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict's statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope. the rest


Calls for calm as militants threaten to kill the Pope
From Richard Owen in Rome
September 19, 2006

THE Vatican tried to appease Muslim anger over the Pope’s remarks on Islam yesterday, as protests continued and a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda vowed to kill the pontiff. the rest


Nun forgave killers as she lay dying

Sister Leonella, a nun who devoted her life to helping the sick in volatile regions of Africa, used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it in Somalia. When the bullet came, she used her last breaths to forgive those responsible.

“I forgive, I forgive,” she whispered in her native Italian just before she died, the Rev. Malaga Wesson told The Associated Press at the nun’s memorial mass in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, today. the rest