Gunman Arrested in Protest Against Pope's Turkey Visit

A violent protest against Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to Turkey has ended with the arrest of a man after he fired shots outside the Italian Consulate in Istanbul.

|PIC1|The angry protest did not harm anyone and ended when the gunman threw his gun into the garden of the consulate after firing the shots, the Dogan news agency said.

Some believe that the protest is rooted in Pope Benedict's comments on Islam in which he quoted a medieval text relating the Islamic Prophet Muhammad with "evil".

Since that speech in September, Pope Benedict has offered an apology for any misunderstandings that could have come from his comments and assured that he meant no offence and was certainly not trying to state his beliefs were in line with those that he was quoting.

Regarding the Pope's upcoming trip to Turkey, due to commence on 28 November 2006, chief Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, stated: "We think that this is something that is an isolated incident and does not disturb the overall calm preparations for the trip," according to Reuters.

Pope Benedict will visit Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul and ancient Ephesus during his trip to Turkey, his first visit to a Muslim-majority country since he commenced his tenure as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Pope was officially invited to visit the country by the Turkish government and will be there from 28 November until 1 December.