The head of Australia's Catholic church said the violent reaction to the Pope's comments on Islam in parts of the Islamic world justified one of the pontiff's main fears.
Cardinal George Pell, the leader of Australia's 5.1 million Roman Catholics, said he was pleased there had been no violence in Australia in reaction to Pope Benedict's XVI use of a medieval quotation on Islam and holy war. But he criticised acts of violence elsewhere.
"The violent reaction in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict's main fears," the Archbishop of Sydney said in a statement on websites of the Catholic Church of Australia.
"They showed the link for many Islamists between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and actual violence," he said.
Pope Benedict sparked the furore last week by quoting a medieval text that characterised some of the teachings of Islam's founder, the Prophet Mohammed, as "evil and inhuman," and branded Islam a religion spread by the sword.
The pontiff tried to defuse the outrage by saying he was "deeply sorry" for the reactions. But because he didn't explicitly acknowledge doing anything wrong, many Muslims don't think his apology went far enough.
Some Australian Muslim leaders said the comments by both Pope Benedict and Cardinal Pell should be condemned.
Ameer Ali, head of a government-appointed Muslim reference group, said Cardinal Pell's comments were "especially unhelpful in a charged atmosphere".
Pope Benedict's comments on Islam have led Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq to vow war on "worshippers of the cross" and protesters in Iraq to burn a papal effigy.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined Muslim criticism of the pontiff, calling the Pope's remarks "the latest chain of the crusade against Islam started by America's Bush."
While some Muslims were mollified by his explanation for the speech made in Germany last week, others remained furious.
"We tell the worshipper of the cross [the Pope] that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said a web statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al-Qaeda.
"We shall break the cross and spill the wine," said the statement, posted on Sunday on an Internet site often used by al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
In Iraq's southern city of Basra, up to 150 demonstrators chanted slogans and burned a white effigy of the Pope. "No to aggression", "We gagged the Pope," they chanted in front of the governor's office in the Shia city.
In Egypt, a parliamentary committee called for the expulsion of the Vatican envoy if the Pope did not apologise, and the top Muslim clergyman in the Palestinian territories today demanded Pope Benedict XVI offer a "clear apology" for remarks about Islam that ignited protests across the Muslim world.
The mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, urged Palestinians to stop their attacks on churches but held the pontiff responsible for the outpouring of Muslim anger.