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AMP Report - October 15, 2007
A common word between Muslims & Christians
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
More than 130 Muslim Muslim religious leaders, scholars and intellectuals from all branches of Islam (Sunni and Shia, Salafi and Sufi, liberal and conservative) have written to Pope Benedict XVI and the major leaders of Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Evangelical, Anglican, Orthodox churches and other Christian sects, urging greater understanding between the two faiths.
The 29-page open letter – titled "A Common Word Between Us and You" - 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. “The Unity of God, the necessity of love for Him, and the necessity of love of the neighbor is thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity." The letter explores passages in the Koran and the Bible that develop these two principles and that reveal fundamental shared values in Islam and Christianity.
The open letter was released on Oct. 13, 2007 which marked Eid al-Fitr, the joyous feast that ends Ramadan, one of the major days on the Islamic calendar. It also coincided with the anniversary of a letter sent by 36 Muslim leaders to Pope Benedict in response to his controversial speech in Germany, in which he quoted a Medieval scholar about Islam in a way that was offensive to Muslims.
The letter 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 continues: With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world’s inhabitants. Thus our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake.
It says: "And to those who nevertheless relish conflict and destruction for their own sake or reckon that ultimately they stand to gain through them, we say that our very eternal souls are all also at stake if we fail to sincerely make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony."
Concluding with a quote from the Koran, the letter says: "So let our differences not cause hatred and strife between us. Let us vie with each other only in righteousness and good works."
Jordan’s Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman have been working for more than three years to make it happen. 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.
138 Signatories
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.
It is argued that one profound obstacle to establishing positive relations among mainstream Muslim and Christian groups has been the lack of a single, authoritative Muslim voice to participate in such a dialogue. This letter changes that. “It proves that Islam can have an unambiguous, unified voice,” according to Aref Ali Nayed, Dr Aref Ali Nayed, a senior adviser at the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme at Cambridge University.
“It’s an astonishing achievement of solidarity,” says Professor David Ford, director of the Cambridge University’s Interfaith Program. “I hope it will be able to set the right key note for relations between Muslims and Christians in the 21st century, which have been lacking since September 11.”
"Everybody thinks they have a historic event," said John L. Esposito, a professor at Georgetown University and director of the center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. "But if you look at the history of Islam and the Muslim world, this is really the first time in history that we have an initiative where Muslims have collectively come together and agreed to what binds them to Christians," he said adding: "The next step is for Christian leaders themselves to come together in a response."
"Everyone is interested in political and economic contentions, difficulties, struggles, wars," said Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University and a signatory of the letter. The differences between Christians and Muslims say the theological experts, is a difference of theology rather than of politics. "Without a theological solution, without a certain sense of accepting the other... all other solutions are expediency and sooner or later they wither away," said Mr. Nasr.
"In a time of conflict, it showed that mainstream groups and ordinary Muslims reject intolerance," says Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America and a signatory of the letter. "This initiative comes on the heels of that one, saying it's time to move to relations between Muslims and Christians."
For the daily Times of London the letter phrasing echoes the New Testament passage: "He that is not with me is against me" - a passage used by President George Bush when addressing a joint session of Congress nine days after 9/11. “The Muslims call instead for the emphasis to be on the shared characteristics of world's two largest faiths.” The Times added that Muslims even quote passages verbatim from the Bible, extremely rare in a publication of this kind and at this level and an indication of their resolve to bring the two faiths together and end the present tensions between them.
Initiative welcomed
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the letter "gives compelling reasons why Muslims and Christians should work together. As Catholics, we look forward to a broad dialogue of civilizations and cultures that will take up the challenges and hopes of the distinguished Muslim authors of this important 'Common Word.' "
Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader to the world's 17 million Anglicans, said in a statement that the letter "provides an opportunity for Muslims and Christians to explore together their distinctive understandings. . . . The call to respect, peace and goodwill should now be taken up . . . at all levels and in all countries."
"The theological basis of the letter and its call to 'vie with each other only in righteousness and good works; to respect each other, be fair, just and kind to another and live in sincere peace, harmony and mutual good will,' are indicative of the kind of relationship for which we yearn in all parts of the world, and especially where Christians and Muslims live together," Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams said.
The Anglican bishop of London, Richard Chartres, also welcomed the letter. "This is substantial letter which speaks of the unity of God from a Muslim perspective," Chartres said. "It demands a substantial response which approaches the same theme from a Christian perspective."
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and president of the Lutheran World Federation, Geneva, who was among the Christian leaders who received this letter acknowledge it in gratitude and recognition of the need for its further study and consideration.
In a formal response to the letter, Bishop Hanson said: The letter attests to both the love of God and our shared heritage of true hospitality to one's neighbor. These commandments convey prophetic witness for mutual and vital co-existence that Christians and Muslims must embrace in one another. The letter further references how the commands to love God and neighbor are linked "between the Qur'an, the Torah and the New Testament." I encourage everyone everywhere to read the beauty of these passages found in the sacred texts of the Abrahamic faiths, which signify God's vision for how and whom we love in a broken world. This common vision for Jews, Muslims, and Christians signifies fidelity and fellowship in a world where conflict offends our common heritage as children of God.
Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Virginia and Co-founder of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, said: Before adding any other word about Judaism, let me say that A Common Word merits praise and blessings l’shmah – for its own sake – as a blessed moment in the history of God’s work on this world. Its authors and signatories merit praise, with prayers for their well being and for the strength of this good work.
Ochs argued that it is of utmost urgency that Christians and Muslims turn now to receive and contemplate this Word, devote both scholarly words and sermons to its import, and devote resources and energies to its dissemination and to its study.
Muslim-Christian dialogue
Muslim-Christian dialogue, which has been promoted by dozens of organizations and institutions, has so far tended to flourish behind the doors of academe or on a personal basis between Christian and Muslim religious leaders. However, this letter has the potential to create a new spirit and new environment for such dialogue for mutual cooperation and harmony between Muslims and Christians. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America and a signatory of the letter is right when she says for Muslims already engaged in dialogue with Christians, it's a confidence-builder. "It gives each of us a greater sense of hope ... that we are part of a global movement to get beyond the misuse of our religion and to make an impact in the world."
Perhaps, the letter would provide a convincing answer to the question often heard after 9/11, who speaks for the Muslims? Hopefully, this letter will be recognized by Christians and other non-Muslims as representing the true voice of Islam, said the Saudi daily Arab News. “The signatories come from all Islamic traditions and schools, not just Sunni, and from every corner of the globe. Here is the Ummah, the Muslim community worldwide, speaking out as with one voice, a voice that is mainstream, that believes in peace, that is concerned about the future of all of us on this planet, not just Muslims, and that sees Christians not as historic enemies but as partners, under one God, for peace.”
The Arab news said that “if that is understood not just by church leaders, but by ordinary Christians, and most of all by those among them who have come to fear Islam either because of the actions of some extremists or because they have had their hearts hardened and their minds closed by their own bigots and extremists, then this appeal will be a mighty blow against Islamophobia and also at the phobia of Christianity that exists in some Muslim quarters.”
Indeed, in the aftermath of 9/11, ignorance and enmity seem to have grown, as bigots on both sides of the divide preach hate and violence in a bid to build their own power bases, the paper said adding that this letter is a clear summons to both Muslims and Christians to spurn the call of those who long for a clash of civilizations.
Read also:
Vatican rebuffs Muslim outreach: Quran cited as the main obstacle
Misgivings and reservations about the Muslim outreach
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