Muslim Group Issues Threat Against Pope

A little-known Muslim group Thursday threatened to kill Pope John Paul II for his support of Lebanon’s rebellious Christian leader, Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun.

The communique from the group, the Organization for the Defense of the Oppressed, also told the Roman Catholic envoy living in Lebanon, Papal Nuncio Pablo Puente, “to leave the Lebanese territories as soon as possible.”

The statement was delivered to a Western news agency as the Pope was being criticized by Lebanese leftists for failing to receive Arab mediators seeking to end the 14-year-old civil war between Muslims and Christians.

“The Organization for the Defense of the Oppressed, after consultations with its forces fighting international arrogance, announces that it has issued the death sentence on the Pope of Rome,” said the handwritten, Arabic message.

The 92-word statement said the killing will be carried out “sooner or later.” It charged that the pontiff “has become the spiritual guide of the mutinous crusaders in East Beirut,” a reference to Aoun and his supporters in the Christian enclave north of the capital who have rejected a new Christian-Muslim government. Aoun wants specific guarantees about the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

Last month, the Pope said the Vatican “cannot remain neutral” and that “it is time . . . for sacrifices for the sake of peace.” In what at the time appeared to be an appeal to Aoun to back down, the message added: “One should sometimes choose the less painful options.”

There was nothing to authenticate the Muslim group’s statement, which used Shiite Muslim fundamentalist language similar to that of pro-Iranian extremist factions holding most of the Western hostages in Lebanon, including nine Americans. The group issued one previous unauthenticated statement Aug. 28, threatening to kill the Pope if he visited Lebanon.

Newspapers and radio stations controlled by the leftists and Muslims in Beirut said the Saudi Arabian, Moroccan and Algerian foreign ministers were in Rome on Wednesday during a tour of Arab and Western countries aimed at bringing pressure on Aoun.