Did he or didn't he?

Muslims were split over whether to accept Pope Benedict XVI's apology on Sunday. The pontiff said he was "deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address" — but did not apologize for the actual address.

He added: "These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought," Benedict told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.

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HOW IT STARTED: The pope sparked the controversy 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."

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MUSLIM REACTION: Muslim reaction on Sunday was mixed.

"It is not enough. He should apologize because he insulted the beliefs of Islam. He must apologize in a frank way and say he made a mistake." — Mahmoud Ashour, the former deputy of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque.

"The pope does not want to apologize. He is evading apology and what he said today is a repetition of his previous statement." — Mohammed al-Nujeimi, a professor at the Institute of Judicial and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"While he is the head of the Catholic Church in the world, many Europeans are not following (the church) so what he said won't influence them. Our relations with Christians should remain good, civilized and cooperative." — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef.

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