Popes secretary warns of Europes Islamisation

Pope Benedict XVIs private secretary has warned of the Islamisation of Europe and demanded that the Continents Christian roots not to be ignored.

London, July 27 : Pope Benedict XVI's private secretary has warned of the 'Islamisation' of Europe and demanded that the Continent's Christian roots not to be ignored.

"Attempts to Islamise the west cannot be denied," Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in a copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazine published today.

"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness," the magazine quoted him as saying.

Gaenswein also defended Pope Benedict's Regensburg (Germany) speech delivered last year, which linked Islam and violence, saying it was an attempt to "act against a certain naivety."

Gaenswein also confirmed that the Pope wrote his own speeches and that the remarks had not been edited.

Asked if the idea of a serious dialogue with Islam that exists in the real world was naive, given that it was a religion where human rights were trampled under foot, he said: "Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied.

Muslims around the world protested against Benedict's speech, with churches set ablaze in the West Bank and a hard-line Iranian cleric saying the Pope was united with US President George W. Bush to "repeat the Crusades".

Gaenswein said: "We first learnt of the harsh reactions at the Rome airport after we had returned from Bavaria. It was a big surprise, also to the Pope, he said.

ANI