Religious Relations

The archbishop of Canterbury on Monday defended himself against a firestorm of recent criticism, telling fellow Anglicans his statement last week that Britain would have to accept some limited form of Islamic law had been misunderstood. Speaking to a gathering of elected representatives from the Church of England, Archbishop Rowan Williams said he took full responsibility "for any unclarity . . . and for any misleading choice of words that has helped cause distress or misunderstanding."

Groups of youths set fire to schools and cars in a sixth consecutive night of violence across Denmark, mostly in immigrant neighborhoods, police said. Forty-three people were arrested. The vandalism started last weekend, and some believe it intensified with the reproduction of a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers Wednesday. The unrest spread across Denmark, with youths lobbing rocks at police and firefighters in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Ringsted, Slagelse and other cities, officials said.

An explosion killed a police commander Monday during a visit by a man in a wheelchair who might have been a suicide bomber or an unwitting victim of insurgents, officials said. If the man was used by militants, it would be the third time this month that Iraqi security forces say disabled people were used to carry explosives that killed themselves and others.

The Rev. Naim Ateek is a white-haired, American-trained Anglican priest who supports nonviolent solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and often speaks of his dream of a world in which Israeli and Palestinian states exist peacefully, side by side. Ateek is also the founder of Sabeel, a Palestinian liberation theology movement based in Jerusalem, and a man whose U.S. appearances in recent years have sparked controversy among some Jewish groups.

World Muslim leaders on Friday condemned extremism and terrorism as incompatible with Islam and proposed a high-level international meeting to promote a "dialogue of civilizations" with Christians. Leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made the "Dakar Declaration" after a two-day summit in Senegal.

Saudi King Abdullah has made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews, the first such proposal from a nation with no diplomatic ties to Israel and a ban on non-Muslim religious services and symbols. The message, welcomed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders, came at a time of stalled peace initiatives and escalating tensions in the region. "The idea is to ask representatives of all monotheistic religions to sit together with their brothers in faith . . . as we all believe in the same God," the king said Monday night.

A Dutch lawmaker released a film highly critical of Islam, setting verses of the Muslim holy book against a background of violent images from terrorist attacks. Geert Wilders posted his 15-minute film on a website. Shortly afterward, Dutch television showed segments of the film and broadcast discussions by analysts on the possible impact of its release. The government had warned Wilders that a film offensive to Muslims could spark violent protests in Islamic countries, like those two years ago after European newspapers published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

The Mormon Church has to be among the most outgoing on Earth; in recent years its leaders have reached out to, among others, Latinos, Koreans, Catholics and Jews. One of the most enthusiastic responses, however, has come from what some might consider a surprising source: U.S. Muslims. "We are very aware of the history of Mormons as a group that was chastised in America," says Maher Hathout, a senior advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

During his first papal trip to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI will visit a synagogue led by a rabbi who survived the Holocaust, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said. Benedict will make a brief stop April 18 at Manhattan's Park East Synagogue, whose leader, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, lived under Nazi occupation in Budapest.

A Virginia court has ruled in favor of 11 conservative congregations that broke away from the U.S. Episcopal Church and want to keep property worth millions of dollars, parties in the dispute said Friday. The ruling is the latest development in an upheaval over orthodoxy roiling the global Anglican community. Its U.S. branch, the Episcopal Church, has been beset by disputes, including one involving the installation of an openly gay bishop.