A frail Pope John Paul II told an audience of Muslims and Catholics in Kazakhstan on Sunday that religion should never be used as a reason for conflict and called on people of all faiths to work for a civilization without hatred.
"We must not let what has happened lead to a deepening of division. Religion must never be used as a reason for conflict," the pope told thousands who gathered outside a yurt in the Kazakh capital to hear the pontiff's mass.
"May people everywhere ... work for a civilization of love in which there is no room for hatred, discrimination or violence," the pope said.
More than 2,000 people gathered in front of a blue yurt-shaped tent in the capital of this former Soviet republic to hear the pontiff pay his respects to communities exiled to these desolate steppes by Stalin.
"I know the sufferings to which many of you have been subjected when the previous totalitarian regime took you from your lands of origin and deported you here in a situation of distress and deprivation," he said.
"I am happy to be here among you and to tell you that you are close to the pope's heart," he added, addressing the crowd in Russian.
The 81-year-old pontiff spoke to people of all confessions -- including Muslims, who paid respects to the Chechens who were exiled by Stalin at the end of World War II -- who packed into Motherland Square under a statue depicting a mother waiting for her son to return from war.
Crowds of Catholics poured into the city Sunday morning on special overnight trains bringing them in from cities around this sparsely populated republic.
Waving different colored scarves and packed into cordoned-off sectors, the crowds sang hymns as the ailing pontiff, wearing green robes, pulled up in his pope mobile.
The pope spoke of the logic of love, "which can bring together Christians and Muslims and commit them to work together for the civilization of love."
The pope also prayed for Kazakhstan "so that this vast nation with all its ethnic, cultural and religious variety, will grow stronger in justice, solidarity and peace.
"May it progress on the basis in particular of cooperation between Christians and Muslims," he added to the clapping of the crowd.
Many in attendance felt the pontiff's visit to this mainly Muslim former Soviet republic, where there are more than 100 different nationalities and ethnic groups, was particularly poignant following this months terrorist attacks in the United States.
Kazakhstan lies in the volatile Central Asian region, which could be destabilized if the United States were to launch retaliatory strikes against Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect for last week's attacks and his hosts, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan's neighbors, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, are waging their own battle against Islamic extremists and were attacked last year by armed zealots thought to have been trained in Afghanistan
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
