DHAKA: Pope Francis, in his strongest criticism of religious militants to date, said on Sunday that no religious group which used violence and oppression could claim to be ‘the armour of God’.

Pope Francis made his comments during a one-day visit to Albania, an impoverished Balkan country hailed by the Pontiff as a model of inter-faith harmony because of good relations between its majority Muslim community and its Christian denominations.

‘Let no one consider themselves the ‘armour’ of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression,’ he said in the Presidential Palace in Tirana, responding to an address by Albanian president Bujar Nishani, who is Muslim.

‘May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all to the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom,’ he said.

Pope Francis, on his first trip as pope to a European country outside Italy, made no direct reference to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants who have seized territory in Syria and Iraq, but it was clear he had events in the Middle East in mind.

Christians and Muslims thronged the Albanian capital on Sunday to greet Pope Francis.

The Pontiff’s plane landed at Tirana’s Mother Teresa airport at 7:00am GMT, where prime minister Edi Rama welcomed him.

Tens of thousands of Albanians, many of them Muslim and Orthodox, had already gathered in Mother Teresa square in central Tirana where the pope will later celebrate Mass.

Some waved welcoming banners while others chanted, ‘Papa Francesco! Papa Francesco!’, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1736 HRS, SEP 21, 2014