Lucknow, Sep 14 (IANS) Islamic scholar Maulana Khalid Rasheed Thursday expressed shock at the remark of Pope Benedict XVI against Prophet Mohammad.
Pope Benedict quoted 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor, Manuel II, saying the Prophet "commanded to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
Rasheed, who was a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said: "The remark is more derogatory than the Danish cartoonist's blasphemous sketches on the Prophet. This was the last thing we could have expected from the Pope."
"Muslims have tolerated Christian terrorism on the people of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and now Lebanon, but no Muslim is going to tolerate such wild, baseless and unfounded allegations against the Prophet."
Rasheed lamented that those who blame Islam for propagating terrorism do not seem to understand that there is no room for terrorism in Islam.
"The charge that the Prophet used the sword to spread Islam is false. The Prophet used the sword only to defend Islam not to spread the religion. He believed in peace and practised it to the hilt," Rasheed said.