[wvns] Vatican rebuffs Muslim outreach
Vatican rebuffs Muslim outreach:Quran cited as the main obstacle
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
http://www.amperspective.com/html/vatican_rebuffs_outreach.html
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 Koran 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 Oct. 13 letter, Cardinal Jean-Louis
Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious
Dialogue in the Roman Curia, told the French Catholic daily La Croix,
on Friday (Oct. 26) that a real theological debate with Muslims was
difficult as they saw the Quran as the literal word of God. "Muslims
do not accept that one can discuss the Quran 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 Quran
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 Quran is the unchangeable word of God.
Vatican response to the Muslim outreach is significant because in his
Regensburg, Germany, speech last year Pope Benedict implied that Islam
was 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 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 Islam's holy book, the
Quran. The Pope bowed to the Quran 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 centre 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 had 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 of his
opposition to Turkey's long-sought membership in the European Union.
According to 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.
Reverting to the 29-page letter that 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 Quran
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 Quran 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.
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