Paris, France - Pope Benedict is no expert on Islam but has a real thirst for understanding the religion and conducting a sincere dialogue with its followers, says a Muslim philosopher who discussed Islam and Christianity with him.
Mustapha Cherif, a former higher education minister and ambassador of his native Algeria, said the Pope showed during a meeting at the Vatican on Saturday he wanted to understand Muslim views on jihad and the role of reason in faith.
The Pope, who sparked Muslim protests in September with a speech hinting Islam was violent and irrational, also wanted to explore how the faiths could work together. He is due to visit predominately Muslim Turkey late this month.
"He is a great theologian but not an expert in Islam," Cherif, the first Muslim intellectual received by Benedict since his election in April 2005, said on Monday evening in Paris. "What touched me was his thirst to understand.
"He is a man of dialogue," Cherif, long been active in Christian-Muslim dialogue in France, told Reuters.
Muslim thinkers have criticized Benedict's speech in Regensburg, Germany because it drew what they said were false conclusions based on books by Christian writers about Islam.
While several Christians have written fine books on Islam, Cherif said, there was no substitute for discussing the faith with a believing Muslim. "He needs to have someone explain it to him with respect, which is what I did," he said.
JIHAD AND SAINT AUGUSTINE
Cherif said he told Benedict that jihad, usually translated in the West as holy war, was really a concept for a just war with rules on fighting and protecting non-combatants.
"This jihad is the same as what Saint Augustine said about the just war," he said, referring to the fifth-century Christian theologian Benedict wrote about in his doctoral dissertation.
"He was surprised by that and said it had to be better known," said Cherif, who asked to meet Benedict even before his Regensburg speech. "He didn't know the nuances."
During their half-hour discussion in French, Cherif said he also refuted what he called the misunderstandings that Islam was spread by the sword and that it did not value reason -- two issues Benedict referred to in his Regensburg speech.
Noting that Benedict later expressed regret for appearing to criticize Islam, Cherif said: "All we want is that he understands and doesn't repeat what he said.
"I leave the polemics to the polemicists. I accept the debate and his readiness for dialogue. The majority of Muslims want a respectful dialogue and refuse stigmatization."
Cherif said dialogue could help Christians and Muslims look beyond their recent tensions to see they are allies in a struggle against the loss of faith and rise of religious hatred.
"Misunderstandings and hatred have grown in the 15 years since the first Gulf War," he said. "We should not let these 15 years make us forget 15 centuries of common history."