Pope says Sunday he is 'deeply sorry' about controversial remarks on Islam

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy-- Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that did not reflect his personal opinion.\nDespite the statement, protests and violence persisted across the Muslim world, with churches set ablaze in the West Bank and a hard-line Iranian cleric saying the pope was united with President Bush to "repeat the Crusades."\nAn Italian nun also was gunned down in a Somali hospital where she worked, and the Vatican expressed concern that the attack was related to the outrage over the pope's remarks.\nBenedict sparked the controversy when, in a speech Tuesday to university professors during a pilgrimage to his native Germany, he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, as "evil and inhuman."\nOn Sunday, he stressed the words "were in fact a quotation from a medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought."\n"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.\nSecurity was higher than usual at the palace, with police patting down many pilgrims and confiscating umbrellas with metal tips and bottles of liquids. Sharpshooters kept watch from a balcony and other officers, dressed like tourists, monitored the crowd with video cameras.\nPolice headquarters across Italy were ordered to raise security at potential Catholic targets. At the Vatican, though, no additional security measures could be seen as tourists strolled across St. Peter's Square.\nMuslim leaders in the Mideast gave mixed reactions to the pontiff's statement Sunday.\nThe leader of Egypt's largest Islamic political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said that "while anger over the pope's remarks is necessary, it shouldn't last for long"