The Pope, the Christians and the Muslims
Let the Dialogue Begin – (Final)
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
CA

As Muslims, we invite the Christians, and all other faiths to a dialogue on the basis of our shared humanity. This is the only common denominator that unites humankind, so divided today on the basis of race, religion, nationality, color, ideology and culture. “O humankind!” the Qur’an commands us, “be conscious of your Creator (and Sustainer) who created you from a single soul (person)”. For a Muslim, the brotherhood of man is not just an intellectual concept but a doctrinal belief. All men and women are brothers and sisters irrespective of their religion, color and national origin.
The Pope has staked out a position that the basis of dialogue must be the Greek Logos (reason). We have shown in this series that reason, as a philosophical discipline, has its limitations. It cannot address the profound spiritual questions facing humanity. It does not address the issues that move the hearts of men and women such as love, compassion and mercy.
A dialogue based on logic and reason is limited to the elite. It can only be a dialogue among the philosophers and the pundits. Both the Christian and the Islamic civilizations have experimented with the rational approach over the centuries, found it wanting and have either discarded it or relegated it to a secondary, supportive role in the hierarchy of knowledge.
A heaven based on cold logic is devoid of feelings and emotion. In such a heaven, there is no color or taste or sweet aroma or sound. In this philosophical heaven, events are only rational or irrational. Such a heaven is perhaps not even worth aspiring to.
A dialogue across civilizations cannot just be a conversation between priests and professors. It must be an interaction that involves the elite as well as the layman, the prince and the pauper, the bushman from New Guinea as well the most sophisticated from New York.
Specifically, as applied to violence, reason can neither condone nor condemn it. The Pope in his speech of September 12 said that violence is irrational. The truth is that violence is neither rational nor irrational. It is inhuman. It is born of passion, anger, greed, aggression, revenge or a desire to dominate. It is not cured through arguments and logic. It is contained through a change of heart.
A dialogue between the Catholics and the Muslims must be scalable and inclusive. The Christians and the Muslims do not live in isolation. They are a part of a larger matrix which includes the Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and the secularists and other Christians.
The Catholics and the Muslims are brothers and sisters in the family of humankind. So are the Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs, and the Shintos. Our overarching humanity transcends our cultural, national and religious differences. The Asians, the Europeans, the Africans and the Latinos have a single origin, created from a single source.
Our shared humanity bestows upon us certain universal physical and intellectual attributes: sensual perceptions, reason, common sense, feelings and a propensity for the spiritual. Sensual perceptions form the basis of empirical science. Reason enables us to extend the reach of perceptions. Common sense breeds tolerance. The feelings of love, compassion and mercy bind our hearts. The spiritual propensity for the unseen unites us in a search for divine presence.
To us as Muslims, the diversity of cultures is a cause for celebration. This diversity is to be found both within and without. The Qur’an teaches us, “…I created you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another”. Diversity facilitates recognition. A monoculture is no culture at all. It is the death of culture.
Within the overarching fold of Islam there are the Chinese, the Indonesians, the Malaysians, the Indians, Pakistanis, Turks, Persians, Arabs, Africans and Europeans. Each has his own culture. Each is beautiful. Similarly, there is a diversity of cultures among the Christians, the Hindus, the Jews, the Buddhists and even the secularists. The variety in cultures facilitates an understanding of human nature just as the dispersion of light in a rainbow facilitates an understanding of the nature of light.
In a planet as variegated as ours, there are bound to be conflicts and differences of opinion. These are driven by suspicion, hatred, passion, emotion, greed and the urge to dominate or exploit. Where there is a difference of opinion, let justice, not violence, be the arbitrator of the differences. Violence begets violence. In the long run, it solves nothing but leaves a legacy of hatred.
A dialogue is not just an argument held behind closed doors of a conference hall, but the daily interactions, the rubbing of shoulders, the negotiations and the give and take, the sharing and caring, the compassion and love manifest when people live close together.
America is the ideal place where such a dialogue can take shape. Here come all the sons and daughters of Adam, men and women of many nationalities, with their faiths and their hopes, their cultural baggage and their languages, in search of a common destiny. Only in America is an Irishman the neighbor of an Englishman, an Israeli of an Arab, an Indian of a Pakistani, an African of a redneck, a Chinese of a Japanese. Muslims are a part of this great melting pot. Their beliefs, ideas, ethics, intellectual heritage, and cultures are all input into this great crucible to be remade and refashioned into a unique and new Islamic identity.
Dialogue is an interface across cultures. It is not just with words. It is also with deeds. A good deed is worth a thousand words. The Prophet was the personification of good deeds. The most effective interfaith dialogues are those that involve alleviation of the human suffering. Soup kitchens and homeless shelters built through cooperative interfaith efforts are worth more than a thousand words spoken by a philosopher.
There are problems galore on the road to attaining this vision. There are extremists within and extremists without. They do not want a dialogue. Secure in their myopic vision of a worldview wherein only they are the owners of the ultimate truth, they seek to impose their view on others. They thrive on conflict. There are extremists among all faiths, including the Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and the secularists. Let not a few detract from the well being of the many. A dialogue must go on continuously to isolate the extremists and drown out their voices.
The path is steep and the horizon is cloudy. There are challenges, large and small. The mainstream media have given up their historical role as platforms for public discussion and have become mouthpieces of special interests. An orchestrated campaign against Islam and Muslims has reached a crescendo. Not even the Qur’an and the Prophet are immune from the insults of an Islamophobic press. The negative is accentuated by those who control the megaphones while the good is discarded in the back alleys of self-interested journalism.
There is homework to be done on the Muslim side too. Muslims must stand up for universal justice, and not just justice for themselves. They must speak up against injustice even when it is committed by their kin. The Qur’an commands us, “O you who believe, stand firmly for justice, even if it be against yourselves”. Muslims cannot condone an injustice just because it is packaged in Islamic slogans. We expect others to respect us. We should respect others to earn their respect.
Islamic life needs a renewal. The basis for such a renewal cannot just be the rigid orthodoxy of jurisprudence. It must accommodate the divine patterns in history, the divine signs in the majestic panorama of nature and embrace the shared spirituality of all mankind. Only such a universal vision lends itself to cooperation in faith, science and culture.
Let religion be the voice of a common humanity. Let the Catholics and the Muslims initiate a dialogue on the basis of their shared human heritage. Let it include not just the priests and professors but men and women of all ranks. Let us invite all men and women of faith to join in. It is time to begin this dialogue.


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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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