No offense intended

The Vatican denied last week that Pope Benedict had attacked Islam or Muslims during a speech given in the German city of Regensburg recently. The pope wants to cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, including Islam obvi-ously, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. The statement came in response to negative reactions in parts of the Muslim world to the pontiffs speech on Tuesday, when he spoke out against the concept of Holy War, saying it was against Gods will.