VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI told a gathering of African Muslim leaders that “genuine religion” is “purified and structured by reason” and “rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism.”

Benedict made his remarks on Thursday (Mar. 19) in Yaounde, Cameroon, during a meeting with Muslim leaders on the third day of a seven-day trip through Cameroon and Angola.

“Genuine religion … rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism; not only on principles of faith, but also of right reason,” Benedict said. “Indeed, religion and reason mutually reinforce one another since religion is purified and structured by reason, and reason’s full potential is unleashed by revelation and faith.”

Benedict has made reason and violence major themes in his approach to dialogue with the Islamic world.

In a lecture at the University of Regensburg, Germany, in September 2006, Benedict quoted a medieval emperor’s description of Islam as “evil and inhuman” and having been “spread by the sword.”

The statement sparked Muslim protests worldwide, some of them violent, including the murder of a nun in Somalia and the burning of Christian churches in the West Bank and Gaza.

Benedict later expressed his “regrets” for hurt feelings, but said that he had quoted the emperor’s words to help “explain that religion and reason go together, not religion and violence.”

The pope again denounced religious violence at a meeting with Muslim leaders in Rome last November, saying that “discrimination and violence” are “all the more grave and deplorable when they are carried out in the name of God.”