Vatican City - Pope Benedict said today that no-one had the right to use religion to justify terrorism and urged greater inter-religious dialogue to stop the cycle of hate and vendetta from infecting future generations.
The Pope made his comments in a message to leaders of world religions gathered in the Italian hill town of Assisi, birthplace of St Francis, to mark the 20th anniversary of a landmark inter-religious meeting hosted by John Paul, his predecessor.
"It is illicit for anyone to use religious differences as a reason or excuse for violence against other human beings," he said in the message. Speaking a week before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks against the United States, the Pope did not specifically mention Islam.
Much education needed
But the reference to the attacks, when 19 Islamic hijackers killed nearly 3 000 people, was clear. He said the new millennium had opened with "scenarios of terrorism that have not even started to fade".
Benedict, who in the past has specifically called on Muslim authorities to help defeat terrorism, said religious leaders had a duty to elaborate a "pedagogy of peace" to teach young people dialogue among different cultures and religions. "Never before have we needed this education as much as now, particularly if we look toward the new generations," he said.
"So many young people in areas marked by conflict are taught sentiments of hate and vendetta in ideological contexts where seeds of ancient rancours are cultivated and psyches are prepared for future violence," he said.
The Pope spoke two days after Al-Qaeda called on George W Bush, the US president, and non-Muslims, especially in the United States, to convert to Islam and abandon their 'misguided' ways or else suffer the consequences.
Religious calls fall on deaf ears
That warning was contained on a website on Saturday by a speaker identified as Adam Yahiye Gadahn - an Islamic convert and who US authorities believe to be involved in a propaganda campaign for Al-Qaeda. One of the key participants at the Assisi meeting was Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the president of Cairo's al-Azhar University, the historic centre of learning in Sunni Islam and a leading authority in the Muslim world.
Al-Tayyeb lamented that many times the voices religious leaders who try to promote dialogue seemed like "cries in the desert".
The Assisi meeting was organised by the Franciscan religious order and the Rome-based St Egidio Community, an international peace group