France, (Pakistan Point News – 2nd August, 2016) : Pope Francis answered reporters’ questions on Sunday, July 31 while on board the flight from Krakow, Poland, to Rome, after his 5-day trip to southern Poland; on the occasion of World Youth Day when Catholic youth gathered from all around the world in Krakow. During this press conference, Pope Francis refused the idea of identifying the islam with violence. He said that all the Muslims are violent as all the Catholics are not violent.
The potential for violence lies in every religion, including Catholicism. Pope Francis said that he did not like to talk about violence in the name of Islam because every time he read newspaper, he saw news of French people killing and murdering each other; someone killed his fiancé, someone killed his mother-in-law etc. He added more, “These are baptized Catholics. They are violent Catholics. If I speak about Islam violence, I need to speak about Catholic violence”.
He responded while a journalist asked about condemning the violent activities as the murder of a French priest last week in Normandy. The pope said that in every religion there are violent people, a small group of fundamentalists, including in Catholicism. “When fundamentalism goes as far as murdering, you can murder with your tongue and also with the knife. I believe that it’s not fair to identify Islam with violence. It’s not fair and it’s not true.” Pope said. ISIS is the group who claimed the murder of the French priest in Normandy. People malign Muslims for such terrorist activities but Muslims in France and Italy attend mass in solidarity after the killing of a Catholic priest in Normandy.
