Pope’s “Muslim Outreach Bid for Papal Electors”
By Hazem Kira
Newark, CA

The American Muslim Alliance (AMA), a civic education organization with 101 chapters nationwide, expressed its profound appreciation for Pope John Paul II’s stated desire and advise that the new Pope must be one who is willing and able to reach out to Muslims.
According to an Associated Press report titled “Muslim Outreach Bid Binds Papal Electors”, the guidelines for the upcoming papal election “represent John Paul II’s last major stamp on his vision for the future of the church.”
“One cannot think of a better alternative to the divisiveness perpetrated by the Neocons and Islamophobic evangelists than the vision of dialogue and accommodation that the late Pope John Paul II has left behind; this could be a major breakthrough for Muslims and Christians”, AMA Chair Dr. Agha Saeed said. “The Muslim Ummah MUST find a suitable way to reciprocate this deeply caring, insightful, and all-inclusive initiative. Now the ball is in our court.”
Pope John Paul II’s lasting imprimatur is enshrined in the appointment of “26 cardinals from six continents who were added to the list of papal electors 18 months ago. These latest cardinals, who account for nearly a quarter of the expected 115-member conclave beginning April 18, include some of the Vatican’s leading voices protesting the US-led war in Iraq.”
In the final analysis, Pope John Paul II’s most far reaching and consequential legacy may well be his counsel that the new pope must be one who would improve relations with the Muslim world. The late pontiff had come to recognize the pressing need for building bridges with the Muslim world. For him the choice was painfully obvious: “strengthen bonds with Muslims or risk a more polarized and dangerous world.”
It is, therefore, no surprise that “some of the most dynamic prelates in the group have been active on the front lines of Christian-Muslim conflicts in Africa or involved in interfaith outreach. Their backgrounds reinforce the perception that questions about Islam could exert a strong influence on the conclave in the way Cold War politics entered into the election of John Paul in 1978.”
Here one should not ignore Pope John Paul II’s role as statesman at the global level. Jo Renee Formicola, a professor of religious and political studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. has cogently pointed out: “There is no bigger question now in the West than building better contacts with the Islamic world. The Vatican recognizes this.”
Stalin, who had once derisively asked: “How many divisions does the Pope have?” had obviously failed to comprehend the power of values and beliefs in world politics. Pope John Paul II was among those who had mastered the art of mobilizing the communities of faith to oppose the extremism of the right and the left.
He was the first Pope to visit a mosque, support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and call for a “dialogue of life” with all faiths and religions. It was under his leadership that during the last quarter of the 20th Century, beginning with the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church developed a new theology of interfaith outreach and accommodation.
The power of Pope John Paul II’s teachings can be judged by the following story narrated by Prof. Thomas Michel, Director of the Islamic Office of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Secretary for Interreligious Dialogue for the Society of Jesus and as Ecumenical Secretary for the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. In his essay titled “Towards a Pedagogy of Religious Encounter”, Prof. Michel writes:
“Once, in Izmir, a colleague invited me to his home because his grandfather was dying. When I arrived, the grandfather was in bed, very weak, but still conscious. The family was in the other corner of the room, drinking tea and conversing in low tones. Two or three of the family members - the grandmother, one of the sons, a niece or nephew - were always at the bedside repeating over and over with the grandfather the Islamic profession of faith: “There is no god but Allah (The God)”.
“After a while, other family members would replace those at the bedside, but the prayer went on continually, even after the grandfather fell asleep. I learned that the most common Muslim prayer for a happy death states: “O God, when I reach the moment of death I pray that “There is no god but The God” will be on my lips.” During the night, the grandfather died in his sleep, with his wife and three grown children at the bedside repeating, in his name, “There is no god but Allah.”
“I learned more that evening about the Islamic attitude toward death than I had during my years of doctoral studies in Islamic thought.”
In there lies an important message for all people of goodwill who seek to unite and not divide the world, and who want peaceful and productive relations with other communities and not to rule over them.

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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