Pope FRANCIS praises Muslim Council of Elders, claims it is ‘committed to dispelling erroneous interpretations’ of Islam

With Russia’s war in Ukraine raging, Pope Francis joined Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders Friday in calling for the world’s great religions to work together for peace, telling an interfaith summit that religion must never be used to justify violence and that faith leaders must counter the “childlike” whims of the powerful to make war.

LIVE from the Mosque - Sakhir Royal Palace | Join us for Pope Francis' meeting with Members of the Muslim Council of Elders. Later, the Holy Father will move to the Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral to join an Ecumenical Prayer for Peace.

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/pope-praises-muslim-council-of-elders-claims-it-is-committed-to-dispelling-erroneous-interpretations-of-islam;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The naive Francis twice said: “As-salamu alaikum!,” not realizing that in Islamic law, only Muslims may use that greeting, when greeting fellow Muslims. It means “Peace be upon you,” and to unbelievers, a Muslim is supposed to say “Peace be upon those who are rightly guided.”

He also said: “I offer you cordial greetings and I express my prayerful hope that the peace of the Most High may descend upon each of you: upon you, who desire to foster reconciliation in order to avoid divisions and conflicts in Muslim communities; upon you, who see in extremism a danger that corrodes genuine religion; upon you, who are committed to dispelling erroneous interpretations that through violence misconstrue, exploit and do a disservice to religious belief.”

It would be refreshing if the Muslim Council of Elders actually bothered to explain how the interpretations of “extremists” are “erroneous,” so that their influence in Muslim communities could be combatted. But they don’t do this, and the pope doesn’t seem to notice or care.

“Pope Francis to Muslim Elders: God ‘Never Incites Hatred, Never Supports Violence,’” by Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart, November 5, 2022:

ROME — Pope Francis told Muslim elders in Bahrain Friday that God is the source of peace and he “never brings about war, never incites hatred, never supports violence.”

“I have come among you as a believer in God, as a brother and as a pilgrim of peace,” the pontiff told the Muslim Council of Elders, so that “we can journey together.”

In passing, the pope also addressed concerns of alleged human rights abuses in the majority Sunni Muslim nation, especially of the country’s minority Shiite Muslim community. In recent years many Shiite activists have been imprisoned or deported, and the largest Shiite opposition group has been outlawed.

“I offer … my prayerful hope that the peace of the Most High may descend upon each of you … who desire to foster reconciliation in order to avoid divisions and conflicts in Muslim communities,” Francis said.

“We, who believe in [God], are called to promote peace with tools of peace, such as encounter, patient negotiations and dialogue, which is the oxygen of peaceful coexistence,” he said.

“Peace is born of fraternity; it grows through the struggle against injustice and inequality; it is built by holding out a hand to others,” he declared, which is made possible “by eliminating the forms of inequality and discrimination that give rise to instability and hostility.”

The pope praised his hearers for seeing in extremism “a danger that corrodes genuine religion” and for their commitment “to dispelling erroneous interpretations that through violence misconstrue, exploit and do a disservice to religious belief.”

“We need to put a future of fraternity ahead of a past of antagonism, overcoming historical prejudices and misunderstandings in the name of the One who is the source of peace,” he asserted….