PARIS, Sept 18: The European press on Monday changed tack in the row over Pope Benedict’s comments on jihad, switching its critical focus from the pontiff to questioning whether the scale of Muslim outrage was justified.

Many European papers lamented that the moderate voices of Islam were being drowned out by hardliners and open debate was being thwarted by political correctness.

In London, the conservative Daily Telegraph editorial said that ‘now is the time for other churchmen to tell their Muslim counterparts that, in addition to dishing out criticism, they must learn how to take it’.

French newspaper Le Figaro said the pope’s comments last week in which he spoke of a link between Islam and violence had become fodder for Muslim leaders with political designs.

“The one responsible for the outburst of hate on the Arab-Muslim street is not the Holy Father. But rather those who use whatever pretext to manipulate their faithful and foster their ignorance, for essentially political reasons,” its editorial said.

Other newspapers highlighted the pope’s conciliatory tone on Saturday when he said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the anger sparked by his remarks, and called on Muslim leaders to reciprocate.

The German daily Sueddentsche Zeitung said it hoped Muslims ‘would make a similar grand gesture’, noting that the protests appeared ‘to confirm what the pope absolutely did not say: they (Muslims) behave as if Islam was an aggressive and violent religion’.

In overwhelmingly Catholic Poland, the daily Dziennik bluntly asked: “Why is Europe not defending the pope?”. It called for western ‘solidarity’ in the face of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’, saying ‘a global victory of that version of Islamic ideology would be a catastrophe’.

Several papers argued that Muslim reaction was ‘exercising a form of censorship on free speech in the West’.

The British centre-left Independent asked if religious leaders, when addressing those from a similar cultural and religious background, could really be expected to weigh the impact of ‘every word, as though the whole world is listening’.

“If everyone speaks in inoffensive platitudes, real points of disagreement will remain concealed,” it said

Many in the European media also called for moderate Muslim leaders to seize control of the debate back from the radicals.

“There is a part of the Muslim world which is not tolerant and respectful of other religions,” wrote Belgium’s Dutch-language daily De Standaard, citing the fiery speeches of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denouncing Israel and the Jews.

“Islam, which always asks for apologies, finds its own ‘conquests’ perfectly normal ... It is time for a peaceful Islam to rise up,” the paper wrote.—AFP