Two high-ranking Kuwaiti Islamist officials have called on Pope Benedict XVI to apologise for remarks he made this week implicitly linking jihad, or holy war, with terrorism.Haken Al Mutairi, secretary general of the emirate's Umma (Islamic Nation) party, urged the pope to apologise immediately "to the Muslim world for his calumnies against the Prophet Mohammed and Islam".
The pope's statements amounted to "the pursuit of crusades", he added.
He also called for all Arab and Islamic states to recall their ambassadors from the Vatican and expel those from the Vatican until the pope says he is sorry for the wrong done to the Prophet and to Islam.
Sayed Baqer al-Mohri, head of the assembly of Shiite ulemas, or theologians, in Kuwait, said the Pope's comments were, "unrealistic and unjustified", and also called for an apology.
