VATICAN CITY, June 11: The world is obsessed by Islam, according to the Vatican’s point man for relations with other religions.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran also said he did not want an impression to grow that there are different classes of religion.

Tauran’s department, the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, oversees relations with all non-Christian religions except Judaism and is preparing new guidelines for Catholic dialogue with them.

The new guidelines will not have special emphasis on Islam, Tauran said in an interview with the religious website terrasanta.com, which specialises in Middle East affairs.

“No, it has to have regard for all religions. What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit,” he said.

“Islam is very important but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions. Islam is one religion,” he said. “Yes, the people are obsessed by Islam.”

Cardinal Tauran said he would be travelling to India soon and there he wanted to “give this message that all religions are equal”.

“Sometimes there are priorities because of particular situations, but we mustn’t get the impression there are first-class religions and second-class religions.”

In March, the Vatican and Muslim leaders agreed to establish a permanent official dialogue, known as “The Catholic-Muslim Forum”, to improve often difficult relations and heal wounds still open from a controversial papal speech in 2006.

Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived after Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply Islam was violent and irrational.

Muslims around the world protested and the pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey’s Blue Mosque and prayed towards Makkah with its Imam.

Cardinal Tauran declined to discuss what he knew of reports of talks between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia aimed at eventually opening a church there.—Reuters