The Vatican Wednesday ignored a call by Islamic foreign ministers at the United Nations for the Pope to retract controversial references he made about Islam.Posted on 30 September 2006 @ 18:09 GMTIn a speech before the UN's annual summit, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo said people with political influence should be doing all they can to ensure extremists are sidelined.
He also re-explained what the Vatican says His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI had meant when he quoted a medieval Christian emperor who equated Islam with violence.
''It falls to all interested parties - to civil society as well as to states to promote religious freedom and a sane, social tolerance that will disarm extremists even before they can begin to corrupt others with their hatred of life and liberty,'' Lajolo told the assembly.