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CAIR - April 22, 2008
Pope’s Visit a Reminder of Quest for Justice, Peace
By Altaf Ali
In Sept. 2006, Pope Benedict XVI sparked tension between Catholics and Muslims by what appeared to be an endorsement that early Muslims spread their religion by violence. Many Muslims were offended by this and some took to the streets in protest. American Muslims called on the church in the United States to establish more dialogue between Muslims and Catholics and offered the U.S. public a free book or DVD on the life of Muhammad.
One must seize the opportunity to bring about success from every adversity. Last year, Muslim leaders and scholars around the world signed a letter entitled, "A Common Word Between Us and You." The letter called for understanding between Christians and Muslims. This letter can be found at www.acommonword.com.
It is with open arms that I welcome Pope Benedict to the United States. I hope and pray his visit will make us take a hard look at ourselves and question our commitment to justice and peace. We must learn to put aside our differences and understand that we are all God's creations. It is only with love, understanding and respect that we will be able to live in peace and harmony. In order for this to happen, people with influence must set an example and be ambassadors to humanity.
As a person who strives to build bridges of understanding, I have experienced the fruits of participating in interfaith events. On Saturday, May 10, the interfaith community in South Florida will hold an event titled, "Bridges to the 21st Century." For more information, call 954-272-0494. When people challenge themselves to travel beyond their own boundaries, they will be able to reap any benefits.
Recently, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia made an appeal for dialogue between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This call was impressive and momentous — it was the first of its kind by an Arab leader. Most importantly, it was a plea from a Muslim country that is home to two of Islam's most sacred sites, thus drawing a significant endorsement by Muslims worldwide. I embrace this noble gesture with enthusiasm.
Recent reports also suggest the Vatican is exploring the possibility of building a church in Saudi Arabia — the first church in this sacred Muslim land. People of other faiths were allowed freedom in the state governed by Prophet Muhammad. In 628 C.E., Prophet Muhammad granted a Charter of Privileges to the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. The charter covered the rights of Christians, including freedom of worship, exemption from military service and the right to protection in war.
For the past several years, St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church has invited me to address its congregation during mass services on Thanksgiving Day. Last Thanksgiving, I brought my three children to the mass. I wanted them to meet their extended brothers and sisters in faith.
Let this visit by Pope Benedict be a source of inspiration to all Americans, and an example to the world. America today is moving beyond its boundaries. Let us capitalize on these opportunities to send a message to the world that regardless of race, color or religion, America is indeed a land of opportunity.
[Altaf Ali is executive director of the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.]
Washington Post - April 20, 2008
Slights have left many U.S. Muslims wary of Pope
By Robin Shulman and Keith B. Richburg
NEW YORK -- Pope Benedict XVI has said he would like to reach out to the Muslim community through dialogue, and Muslims were included in the pontiff's meeting with interfaith leaders in Washington on Thursday night. But many Muslims in America remain wary, saying the pope has created the impression that he is insensitive to their faith.
On Sunday, the pope will visit Ground Zero, perhaps the most poignant symbol of the divide between the West and the more extremist elements of Islam. But interviews in New York and elsewhere indicate that even those Muslims who do not hold such radical views are critical of the pope.
Many still recall the pope's September 2006 lecture at the University of Regensburg in Germany, in which Benedict quoted a Byzantine Christian emperor saying that the prophet Muhammad brought "things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
That lecture sparked days of protests in Muslim countries, some of them violent, and an Italian nun in Somalia was killed in retaliation. The Pope repeated several times that he regretted the offense his speech caused, and that he has deep respect for Islam. But the remarks have caused lingering damage, according to Muslims and some Catholic scholars interviewed.
"I don't think he did enough to apologize," said Omar T. Mohammedi, a member of the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
"For a person of his stature to come out and say this about Islam, it amazes me, it's sad," said Wael Mousfar, president of the Arab Muslim American Federation, a community group in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, a largely Muslim neighborhood. "Islam is the target of everyone nowadays; he just jumped on the bandwagon and joined the crowd."
There have been other perceived slights. For example, the pope confounded Muslims when he baptized a prominent Egyptian-born Italian Muslim convert on international television Easter Sunday.
"This person chose to be Catholic, it's not a problem," said Imam Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. The problem was the pope's celebration of the conversion on a global stage, he said.
Conversion and religious freedom remain major, thorny issues in the relationship between the Vatican and Muslim countries. Some Muslim countries prohibit Muslims from converting, and punishments can include the death penalty -- a position that Catholics find an anathema.
"The whole idea of having civil laws against people converting -- and threatening them with death -- is totally abhorrent to our view of religious liberty," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a theologian with Georgetown University.
Another point of tension between the Vatican and the Muslim world is the issue of proselytizing, which is part of the Catholic mission but condemned by many Muslims.
Some Muslim leaders invited to meet the pope in Washington declined, citing the controversies over the Regensburg lecture and conversion. "I didn't attend," said Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who was invited to the interfaith meeting. "The invitation was to be involved in the ceremonies and the pageantry, but not in authentic, in-depth discussions on issues affecting Catholic-Muslim relations today."
There was no exchange in the meeting, according to participants, with Benedict delivering an address to the 200 leaders representing five faiths.
"It was not very interactive. It was not a two-way street," said Nihad Awad, a co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who attended.
Many Muslims fondly remember John Paul II, who made interfaith dialogue a central tenet of his papacy and was the first pope to step inside a mosque, while in Damascus, Syria, in May 2001. On that trip, he asked for a joint act of contrition "for all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another."
"The previous pope was very embracing, very wise, and I think he was genuine and sincere in fostering a commitment to build dialogue and communication with other religious groups," said Ali, of the Islamic Cultural Center. "The current pope is a little different."
Various scholars and theologians say that in the first days of his papacy, Benedict did appear to downgrade interfaith dialogue, removing Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, an Arabic speaker and noted Muslim scholar, from his role as president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue and sending him to Egypt as nuncio, or the Vatican ambassador.
"There's a doubt that he's serious about dialogue, said the Rev. Dan Madigan, a professor of theology in Rome who serves as a consultant to the commission for relations with Muslims, part of the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue. Madigan said the council he sits on "is not called on very much."………..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/19/AR2008041901183.html
New York Times - April 17, 2008
The Muslim-Catholic Question
By Muzammil H. Siddiqi
In 1965 Catholic Church allowed its adherents to engage in dialogue with people of other religions. Since then Muslims and Catholics are meeting regularly in different part of the world. In the United States, the Muslim-Catholic dialogue formally began in 1985. National and regional meetings have been co-sponsored by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America and several other Muslim organizations. I have been more directly and regularly involved in the West Coast dialogue of which I have served as a co-chairman with our esteemed Catholic Bishops and leaders.
In December 2003, we concluded a joint statement: “Friends and Not Adversaries: A Catholic-Muslim Spiritual Journey.” Our joint statement emphasized:
I. We, Catholics and Muslims, believe that God is the source of peace and justice, and thus we fundamentally agree on the nature of peace and justice and the essential need of all to work for peace and justice.
II. Our rich teachings and traditions of peace and justice serve as a resource and inspiration for all; however, our immediate and present actions to work together are often wanting. The need to work together for peace and justice is a pressing demand in these troubled times.
III. We believe that it is God who forgives and that as Catholics and Muslims we are called by God to offer forgiveness. Forgiveness is an important step to moving beyond our past history if we are to preserve human dignity, to effect justice, and to work for peace.
IV. We may disagree on certain points of doctrine, even as we respect the others’ rights to a fundamental integrity of their teachings and affirm all their human and religious rights. With love and in the pursuit of truth, we will offer our criticisms of one another when we believe there is a violation of integrity of faith in God. We must avoid demonizing one another and misrepresenting one another’s teachings and traditions.
V. When we meet in dialogue and discuss matters of peace, justice, and forgiveness, while being faithful to our traditions, we have experienced a profound and moving connection on the deepest level of our faith, which must take effect in our lives.
Our dialogue has matured during these years. We do not sit together to engage in polemics, or apologetics. We do not attack others’ faith positions, nor do we try to convert each other. We rather look at issues from a broader perspective of understanding our commonalities and our rich diversity. The dialogue has been productive and helpful in developing better understanding among us and also building good relations and cooperation among us.
There have also been challenges. In his lecture at the University of Regensburg, Germany, on Sept. 12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a 14th century Byzantine Emperor named Manuel II Palaeologus, who said “… Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith that he preached.”
Pope Benedict repeatedly quoted Manuel’s argument that spreading the faith through violence is unreasonable. This gave a general impression that the Pope was supporting these views. The reaction was swift and strong from Muslims the world over.
Pakistan’s parliament voted to condemn him. Lebanon’s leading Shia leader asked for a personal apology. The deputy head of Turkey’s governing party put him in the same category as Hitler and Mussolini. Unfortunately, two churches in Palestine were bombed, and a nun in Somalia was killed over the incident.
Muslims in America felt deep pain. They expressed sadness and sorrow, dismay and shock but they more restrained and peaceful. We felt that we have to increase our dialogue and do more work to create better understanding of our faith and our Prophet.
Pope Benedict realized the pain that his lecture caused to Muslims. He said that he was “deeply sorry,” adding that the quotation was not an expression of his personal views. We talked to our Catholic friends in dialogue, and they also realized the seriousness of the situation. In Los Angeles we met with Cardinal Roger Mahoney who remarked that this was “a moment of education.”
We Muslims appreciate our dialogue with the Catholic Church and we hope that it will continue for the benefit of our two communities as well as for others. We need joint efforts to remove misinformation and misrepresentation of each other’s faith in our books, especially school texts and the texts used in our religious schools. We need joint efforts against anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim propaganda and to promote religious freedom and tolerance. We need more cooperation in relief efforts in areas affected by natural or man-made disasters. We need joint efforts for peace, freedom and political justice.
Muslim-Catholic dialogue could serve as a good model for bilateral and multilateral dialogues among the people of other faiths as well. We believe that dialogue is necessary among all people of faith and cultures.
It is our hope that our meeting today with Pope Benedict XVI will enhance our relations and open the ways for more dialogue and better relations.
http://thepope.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/the-muslim-catholic-question/
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