Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Jordan and the occupied territories steered clear of any controversy, if that is possible in a land where Christians suffer almost as much as Muslims, report Oula Farawati in Amman and Khaled Amayreh in Bethlehem The view from Bethany beyond the Jordan could not be more spiritual. Devoted Christians from many Arab and Western countries gathered to see the top Christian leader pray where Jesus was baptised. In another mass at a stadium, Jordanian, Lebanese, Cypriot and Vatican flags, among others, flapped in the wind and the message in the air was that of peace, hope and mutual coexistence. Jordanian officials have openly acknowledged that the kingdom was looking to make economic gains from the visit by putting itself firmly and clearly on the map of global Christian tourism. A top Jordanian official told Al-Ahram Weekly that the kingdom will be working hard now to build on the visit of the Pope, eager for a lucrative share of the huge international market in Christian tourism that sees 150 million Christians travelling as pilgrims each year. King Abdullah and his charismatic wife, with all their kids, accompanied the Pope on his visit, a tactical moved that analysts said was aimed at shedding light on Jordan's peaceful image. Tourism, good relations between Christians and Muslims, and a large emphasis on the goodness of Jordan towards its small Christian minority were the subjects highlighted by the Pope's visit. This prompted political analyst Jamal Tahat to ask some uncomfortable questions. "We only stood to lose instead of gain from such a high-ranking visit," he said. "It was totally wrong to ignore the fact that we could have used the Pope's visit to underline political messages about Christian and Muslim rights in Palestine. We couldn't benefit from the holy father telling Israel on the other side that Christians of Palestinian origins, who live here and in many areas around the world, have the right to return," he said. For Tahat, the Pope's statements of peaceful coexistence were totally futile without a sufficiently supportive gesture towards Palestinians -- both Christian and Muslim -- suffering under Israeli occupation. The Vatican had stressed before the eight-day trip to the Middle East that the visit was strictly a pilgrimage, and that he did not intend to get involved in the complex politics of the region. For analyst Mohamed Abu Rumman, it was a smart decision to avoid delving into politics, since it was not in the best interest of Jordan to devote the visit to controversial political issues and the unfavourable stance of the Vatican towards Arabs and Muslims. The Vatican enraged Muslims around the world when Pope Benedict delivered a lecture on 12 September 2006 at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Speaking in German, he quoted an unfavourable remark about Islam made in the 14th century by a Byzantine emperor: "Show me just what Mohamed brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Islamists in Jordan boycotted the Pope's visit. The Islamic Action Front condemned the visit and demanded an apology to Muslims around the world. "The present Vatican Pope is the one who issued severe insults to Islam and did not offer any apology to the Muslims," Zaki Bani Rusheid, head of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest mainstream Islamist party, told Reuters. "Ignoring Muslim sentiments will only block the healing of wounds his statements caused," said another Islamist figure, Jamil Abu Baker. "What is needed from the Pope is to have the courage to apologise," Bani Rusheid said. "Benedict has expressed regret for misunderstandings over Regensburg but not for the speech itself." In comparison, the visit of his predecessor Pope John Paul II in 2000 was hailed by Jews and Muslims alike. Tahat also said the kingdom could have used the visit to smoothen its relations with Islamists. "We paid a high political price for this. The officialdom totally disregarded the Islamists. It wouldn't have been harmful to invite the moderate Muslims like Abdel-Latif Arabiyat for example to participate in the different events that were included in the Pope's visit," he said. He accused Jordanian officials of failing to let the pope know that he should take off his shoes before entering a mosque, thus enraging even more Muslims. The pontiff visited King Hussein Bin Talal Mosque, but did not take off his shoes. However, Vatican Press Office Director Father Federico Lombardi explained that the Pope was "ready to do it", but he was told it wouldn't be necessary, because the route of his visit was covered by a thick carpet. The Holy Father's prayer on the Jordanian side of the river also highlighted some negative sentiments against the Israeli neighbours. The Old and New Testaments present the Jordan River Valley as the gates to the Garden of Eden. But the river is said to have been tainted with untreated and partially treated sewage, saline water and fish pond effluent that come from large drainage pipes built into the riverbed by Israelis. But top Jordanian environmentalist Batir Wardam said Israel was not the only party to blame for the drying up of the Jordan River and its pollution. "Both Jordan and Syria have contributed to the problem. Syria by building a package of dams along the Yarmouk River, a major tributary for the Jordan River, thus reducing enormously the amount of natural flow, and Jordan for its water policy that puts the major priorities on irrigation and drinking water and leaving nothing for natural flow," he told the Weekly. "Any remediation action for the Jordan River requires the restoration of a minimum amount of natural flow that will reduce pollution and help in natural purification of water quality. Such a flow can be restored by innovative plans to collect, store and restore rainwater or the reuse of greywater from nearby residential areas. The Jordan River needs to move away from the blame game to a state of innovative approaches in water management." As the Pope wraps up his visit to the turmoil-ridden Middle East, a lot of issues have been raised and highlighted. The question is, how countries embroiled in the highly-charged politics of the region will ultimately use the goodwill gesture of the top Christian authority.
