The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales today questioned whether Turkey should join the European Union.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, echoed comments previously made by Pope Benedict XVI in saying that the predominantly Muslim state was not culturally part of Europe.

His comments came as the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, also questioned the admission of Turkey into the EU.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Cardinal sought to play down the controversy over the Pope’s recent speech in which he quoted the words of a Byzantine emperor who described Islam as "evil and inhuman".

However he accepted that there were passages in the Koran which could be read as an "incentive to violence."

Cardinal Murphy O’Connor questioned the position of Tony Blair who has consistently argued for Turkish membership of the EU on the grounds that exclusion would be damaging, arguing: "There may be another view that the mixture of cultures is not a good idea.

"I think the question is for Europe: will the admission of Turkey to the European Union be something that benefits a proper dialogue or integration of a very large, predominantly Islamic country in a continent that, fundamentally, is Christian?

"I speak also in a sense for the people of this country, who 70 per cent say they are Christian, whether they practice or not, because they realise although we are a secularist country, at the same time, I believe, there is a deep yearning for God."

At the start of his papacy last year, the Pope made it apparent that one of the key themes he would address would be the defence of the Europe’s Christian culture. Before becoming Pope as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he opposed Turkish membership of the EU, saying that this would "run counter to history".

Lord Carey today also questioned Turkish membership of the EU.

"Surely a European community has to be more than economic? It has to have common values and so on," he told the Today programme.

"I think the jury is still out on Turkey at the moment. I look at its record on freedom of speech, what it is doing to writers in Turkey who want to speak out, and some of them are in jail.

"I think we are on a journey together. I don’t write them out of the action but there are questions to be pushed."

Commenting on Pope’s speech, Cardinal Murphy O’Connor said that it had not been the Pontiff 's intention to argue that there was a greater inclination to violence in Islam than in Christianity.

However he accepted that there were passages in the Koran, as in the Bible, which could be seen as an incitement to violence.

"I think some words in the Koran can clearly be a sort of incentive to violence, as there can be in some words, particularly of the Old Testament," he said.

The Cardinal urged moderate Muslims to help calm the storm roused in the Islamic world by the Pope’s speech. He said that the pontiff had expressed regret for the "seeming offence" which his words had given to the Muslim community and that he had not intended to provoke such outrage.

"I sincerely hope that what Pope Benedict has said will diminish and take away any offence that has been taken and that moderate Muslims will in fact make sure that some of the more immoderate responses to his words will cease," he said.

Lord Carey added that although the use of the contentious quote by Emperor Manuel II Paleologus had been "quite unnecessary", the speech highlighted the need for a deeper dialogue with Islam.

"I think the reaction actually illustrated the point he was making. Religion is often associated with violence. We must overcome that," he said.

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