Istanbul, Turkey ? Police detained a man who fired shots into the air outside the Italian consulate Thursday to protest this month’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI, and the suspect told a TV reporter he wanted to “strangle” the pontiff.

Benedict is scheduled to visit Turkey on Nov. 28-Dec. 1.

“I don’t want him here. If he was here now, I would strangle him with my bare hands,” the suspect, who identified himself as Ibrahim Ak, 26, told a Dogan news agency television cameraman as he was detained by police.

“I fired the shots for God,” Ak said as he sat handcuffed inside a police van outside the consulate. “Inshallah (God willing), this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims.”

It would be Benedict’s first visit as pope to a predominantly Muslim country, only two months after he provoked widespread anger in the Islamic world by quoting an emperor who characterized the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman.”

Benedict has since expressed regret for offending Muslims and called for dialogue with Islam.