Vatican Rebuffs
Muslim Outreach:
Qur’an Cited as the Main Obstacle
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
CA
The Vatican has rebuffed a massive outreach effort
by 138 Muslim religious leaders and scholars who
sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI in an attempt
to improve Christian-Muslim relations.
The letter, titled "A Common Word Between
Us and You," which is also addressed to Christianity’s
other most powerful leaders, including the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the heads of the Lutheran, Methodist
and Baptist churches, seeks to recognize similarities
between Islam and Christianity as a way of fostering
mutual understanding and respect between the two
religions.
It compares texts from the Bible and the Qur’an
to argue that Christians and Muslims worship the
same God. Both believe in "the primacy of
total love and devotion to God," and both
value love of neighbor and a peaceful world.
In a belated response to the October 13 letter,
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical
Council for Inter-religious Dialogue in the Roman
Curia, told the French Catholic daily La Croix,
on Friday (October 26) that a real theological
debate with Muslims was difficult as they saw
the Qur’an as the literal word of God. "Muslims
do not accept that one can discuss the Qur’an
in depth, because they say it was written by dictation
from God. With such an absolute interpretation,
it is difficult to discuss the contents of faith."
Another reading of his comments suggests that
the Vatican does not want a dialogue with Muslims
unless they change their belief in Qur’an
as a revealed book. Like most Christian theologians,
the Muslims have to believe that sacred scriptures
are the work of divinely inspired humans.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran’s comments echo
Pope Benedict’s statement. In the summer
of 2005, Pope Benedict devoted an annual weekend
of study with former graduate students to Islam.
During the meeting he reportedly expressed skepticism
about Islam's openness to change given the conviction
that the Qur’an is the unchangeable word
of God.
The Vatican response to the Muslim outreach is
significant because in his Regensburg, Germany,
speech last year Pope Benedict implied that Islam
was a violent and irrational religion. His remarks
sparked bloody protests in the Muslim world and
prompted the Muslim scholars to unite to seek
better inter-faith understanding.
Pope Benedict recently re-established an office
for interfaith dialogue that he had shuttered,
but the Roman Catholic Church has taken a hard
line stance towards Islam since the death of John
Paul II in 2005, supporting diplomacy but not
theological discussion. Pope John Paul met with
Muslims more than 60 times over the course of
his pontificate to build bridges. In May 1999,
Pope John Paul II received a delegation of Iraqi
Muslims who presented him the Qur’an. The
Pope bowed to the Qur’an and he kissed it
as a sign of respect.
However, as a cardinal in the Holy See, the Pope
Benedict was known to be skeptical of his predecessor
John Paul II's pursuit of conversation. One of
his earliest decisions as pope was to move Archbishop
Michael Fitzgerald, one of the Catholic Church's
leading experts on Islam, and head of its council
on inter-religious dialogue, away from the center
of influence in Rome, and send him to Egypt as
papal nuncio.
Benedict has spoken publicly of Christianity as
the cornerstone of Europe and against the admission
of Turkey into the European Council. He said Turkey
should seek its future in an association of Islamic
nations, not with the EU, which has Christian
roots. However, during his visit to Turkey in
November 2006, Benedict softened on his opposition
to Turkey 's long-sought membership in the European
Union.
Said Marco Politi, the Vatican expert for the
Italian daily La Repubblica: "Certainly he
closes the door to an idea which was very dear
to John Paul II - the idea that Christians, Jews
and Muslims have the same God and have to pray
together to the same God." Recently, Pope
Benedict promoted the old Latin Mass, which contains
references to the conversion of the Jews. The
Latin mass, largely abandoned after Vatican II,
has long been hated by Jews for its emphasis on
the Jewish role in turning Jesus over to the Romans
for crucifixion and for its call for Jews to come
into the church.
The 29-page letter was welcomed by various leaders
and institutions, including the Baptist World
Alliance and the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop
of Canterbury and spiritual leader to the world's
17 million Anglicans. Rev. Williams said: 'The
letter’s understanding of the unity of God
provides an opportunity for Christians and Muslims
to explore together their distinctive understandings
and the ways in which these mould and shape our
lives.'
The Evangelical Alliance in Britain welcomed the
letter's call for peace and understanding, but
also pointed to differences between the two faiths.
Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said that the
letter seems to undercut the role of Jesus by
emphasizing a part of the Qur’an that urges
non-Muslims not to "ascribe any partners
unto" God. The two faiths' understanding
of the oneness of God is not the same, he told
the Times of London. "One partner cannot
dictate the terms on which dialogue must be conducted,"
he said. "This document seems to be on the
verge of doing that."
The letter offers interpretations of both the
Qur’an and the Bible on the love of God,
love of neighbor and other spiritual concepts
that are similar in Christianity and Islam. It
pointed out that finding common ground between
Muslims and Christians is not simply a matter
for polite ecumenical dialogue between selected
religious leaders and added that Christianity
and Islam are the largest and second largest religions
in the world and in history.
The two faiths account for more than half the
world's population, the letter notes. “Christians
and Muslims reportedly make up over a third and
over a fifth of humanity respectively. Together
they make up more than 55% of the world’s
population, making the relationship between these
two religious communities the most important factor
in contributing to meaningful peace around the
world.”
“If Muslims and Christians are not at peace,
the world cannot be at peace.”
The letter is signed by no fewer than 19 current
and former grand ayatollahs and grand muftis from
countries as diverse as Egypt, Turkey, Russia,
Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq. Signatories
include Shaykh Sevki Omarbasic, Grand Mufti of
Croatia; Dr Abdul Hamid Othman, adviser to the
Prime Minister of Malaysia and Dr Ali Ozak, head
of the endowment for Islamic scientific studies
in Istanbul, Turkey. They also include Shaykh
Dr Nuh Ali Salman Al-Qudah, Grand Mufti of Jordan
and Shaykh Dr Ikrima Said Sabri, former Grand
Mufti of Jerusalem and Imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jordan’s Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for
Islamic Thought in Amman has been working for
more than three years to prepare this letter.
The Royal Institute was also responsible for the
widely read Open Letter to the Pope following
his controversial speech last year, which was
signed by 38 high-level Muslim leaders.
The Jordanian Institute is hopeful that this historic
letter would provide a common ground for the many
organizations and individuals who are currently
busy in interfaith dialogue all over the world.
Read also: A common word between Muslims &
Christians
www.amperspective.com/html/muslim_outreach_to_christians.html
(Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor
of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective:
www.amperspective.com email: asghazali@gmail.com)
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