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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