Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Catholic-Muslim interfaith forum

Pope approves rolling Catholic-Muslim interfaith forum: Vatican
by Martine Nouaille Wed Mar 5, 4:35 PM ET

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval Wednesday to the creation of a permanent Catholic-Muslim interfaith forum that will hold it inaugural meeting this November in Rome, the Vatican said.

The initiative was sparked by the pope's own controversial speech at a German university in 2006, where he appeared to link Islam with violence.

The dispute inspired by his remarks led last year to 138 leading Muslim scholars calling for a dialogue with the leader of the Roman Catholic church, and eventually to today's accord.

The first summit of the "Catholic-Muslim forum" will be on November 4-6 in Rome, on the theme of "the love of God, love of neighbour," according to a joint statement issued after the meeting between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and a delegation of the so-called Group of 138.

November's meeting will be attended personally by the pope, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran confirmed in a statement. The Muslim side will be represented Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad, president of Britain's Muslim Academic Trust.

A second follow-up conference has already been scheduled for 2010, to be held in a Muslim country, Ali Aref Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, said.
The structure put in place Wednesday could also be activated in case of a crisis such as the global uproar that followed the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in 2006, according to Nayed.
Nayed told a press conference in Rome he was delighted with the "incredibly positive response" to the Group of 138's call for dialogue, which had already led to a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury amongst others.

The goal is to "return to the roots of the faith and what we have in common" -- far from the image of violence too often attached to Islam, Nayed said.

Wednesday's Vatican meeting was held "in a very positive and welcoming atmosphere," he added.

Questioned about the aftermath of the crisis caused by the Regensburg University speech by the pope, Nayef said it still "burnt strongly in many parts of the Muslim world".

The speech "was a mistake, but everyone makes mistakes ... the important thing is to correct them," he said.

In November the pope will meet all 48 participants, who will debate the theological and spiritual foundations of the chosen theme as well as "human dignity and mutual respect."
November's ground-breaking summit will take place just over a year after 138 Muslim leaders from various sects from 43 countries issued an open letter to Christian churches urging peace and dialogue.

The move in October 2007, sponsored by Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Muhammed bin Talal, came one year after a speech by the pope at Regensberg University in Germany angered some Muslim leaders for using a quote that seemed to equate Islam with violence.

The 138 signatories have now swelled to 241.

The Catholic Church remains reluctant to engage in a profound theological debate with Islam without first clarifying such issues as complete religious freedom for Christians in Muslim countries.

3 comments:

bill bannon said...

What is never mentioned in reports is whether this group of 138 or now 241 has actual power over ?how many people percentage wise of Islam and whether they have power also on issues like Islamic governmental restrictions on Christians. We Catholics too often see talk as progress while talk can be endorthermic and have no results outside the academic venue we have set up and which makes us feel good. A good number of participants are mufti's but what does that mean in terms of Islamic government restrictions on Christians...can they change a blessed thing in the real world and why are there only one intellectual each from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia where Christians indeed have cause to worry. Yet the Kosovo-Croatia-Bosnia-Slovenia area are well represented but I've not heard of them being a problem to Christian liberty to preach. It's nice that they are there but these meetings are real or are they
fanciful as to how much power the participants have? The Grand Mufti of Syria is there in the 138and that is very good as is the prescence of a member of the Supreme Sharia Committee of Lebanon. But Saudi participation is almost nil and they are the exporter of wahhabism via the schools that they fund with their oil money in places like Pakistan where violence is less controlled than it is in Saudi Arabia...where violence is the government's job as when they beheaded one of their own princesses years back for adultery....can't fault them for uneven justice though...but since Christ and John's gospel, personal sins like adultery should not be punished with death.

Annie Jeffries said...

Dear Bilbannon,

Thank you for dropping in. You make excellent points and they echo my private thoughts and concerns especially as pertains to the non-involvement (essentially) of Saudi Arabia.

bill bannon said...

And thank you for an interesting report. The Islamic scriptures are the main problem. They are violent in a special way both in the canonical hadiths and in the Koran and they have no New Testament to rescind that type of violence. They do have a theory of abrogation whereby a previous passage can be overcome by a later passage which is why they first permitted alchohol drinks and later banned them. So a nice muslim could perhaps do the same with violent passages by interpreting later passages against the previous ones but the question is whether that type of muslim will ever rise to great acceptance by the many rather and power within governments who sustain themselves by power.