The West is becoming 'obsessed with Islam,' Vatican warns

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said that the Church “has to have regard for all religions" and that  the West's fascination with Islam was putting inter-faith dialogue at risk.

Cardinal Tauran said  the council had this week discussed new guidelines on how to achieve this.

The Vatican has warned that inter-faith dialogue is being put at risk because of the west's fascination with Islam

"Islam is very important, but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions. Islam is one religion," he reveals on Catholic website Terrasanta.net.

He added that Islam should not monopolise inter-faith dialogue and that it was just one of the world's many religions.

"I'm going to India next month and I want to give this message that all religions are equal.

"Sometimes there are priorities because of particular situations, but we mustn't get the impression there are first-class religions and second-class religions."

The Cardinal also criticised countries such as Saudi Arabia for not allowing Christian worship.

“What is good for me is good for the other, so if it's possible for Muslims to have a mosque in the West, we should have the same in Muslim countries. This is not the case in many countries," he said.

Cardinal Tauran's comments come in the lead up to an inter-faith meeting in Amman, the capital of Jordan, later this month.

“What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit."

Pope Benedict XVI has also convened a Catholic-Muslim forum for October in a bid to compensate for a controversial speech he gave two years ago when he suggested that Islam was "irrational and inherently violent".