Pope Francis has disagreed that Islam should be identified with violence, labelling ISIS a fundamentalist sect of the religion.
The pontiff expressed his view that every religion has its own fundamentalist group, including that of Catholicism.
"I do not believe it is right to identify Islam with violence," the Pope told journalists on Sunday while returning to Rome from Poland after wrapping up World Youth Day celebrations.
"This is not right and it is not true. If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence," he said.
The pope spoke about the rising rate of violence even in the hands of baptized Catholics and called them violent Catholics. He also told the journalists that he doesn't like to talk about Islamic violence.
His remarks came when journalists asked about the killing of Fr. Jacques Hamel, the 86-year-old French priest and why he never refers to Islam even after the rising number of attacks by Islamic militant.
During the in-flight conference, he stated that Al-Azhar University's Grand Imam only sought peace after both of them had an elaborate discussion.
He also recalled last November's trip to the Central African Republic, where many Muslims, including one imam joined him in the popemobile.
When speaking about fundamentalists, he stressed that there are many European who enlist in acts of terrorism.
"Terrorism is everywhere. You think of tribal terrorism of some African countries," he said.
"Terrorism grows when there are no other options, and when the center of the global economy is the god of money and not the person – men and women – this is already the first terrorism."