Papal tour: The Arab media's view

Papal tour: The Arab media's view

Compared to the political minefield that next week's visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories promises to be, this was meant to be the easy part.

A few days in peaceful and stable Jordan were meant to be a chance for pope Benedict XVI to mend fences with Muslims after the offence caused by his Regensburg University comments in 2006 linking Islam to violence.

But rather than Islam, it was the relationship between the Church and Jews that ended up dominating the Arab media agenda.

The pope's most important speech of his trip so far came at around noon local time, at the King Hussein Mosque in Amman.

One of the main themes of the pope's pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been to seek better relations between Islam and Christianity, and his speech called for focus on what unites the two religions rather than what divides them.

He said that followers must stand together against the "ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, which is the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence".

But it was not this speech that captured the headlines and imagination of the Arab media. It was the pope's earlier address at Mount Nebo, where the Bible says God showed Moses the promised land, that was debated on the Arab street.

Few outside the region would see political undertones in the words the pope said on the mountain.

"May our encounter today inspire in us a renewed love for the canon of sacred scripture and a desire to overcome all obstacles to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in mutual respect and co-operation," he said.

"The ancient tradition of pilgrimage to the holy places also reminds us of the inseparable bond between the Church and the Jewish people."

Absent absolution

But the mention of an "inseparable bond between the Church and the Jewish people", made in a Muslim country, angered some Jordanian clerics and many Arab commentators.

Add to that the absence of a clear and total apology for the Regensburg comments during the Mosque speech - which few Muslims realistically think will ever come, but were hoping for nonetheless - and Vatican spokesman Father Lombardi's comments on Saturday, that "the dialogue with Muslims took some forward steps", sound a little hollow.

The Vatican's protestations that this is not a political trip will not stop Arabs and Israelis viewing everything through a political lens.

From a Christian point of view, it makes perfect sense to mention the links between Christianity and Judaism at a site linked to Moses.

But such religious details are lost in this region of heightened sensitivities, where politics and religious identity are intrinsically linked.

And the Vatican's claims that we're on the way to better dialogue may be a little premature.