A reader sent me the following article.
Prominent Muslim scholars are warning that the “survival of the world” is at stake if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other.
In an unprecedented open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam, the Muslims plead with Christian leaders “to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Pope Benedict are believed to have been sent copies of the document which calls for greater understanding between the two faiths.
The letter also spells out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the Koran.
The Muslim scholars state: “As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them – so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes.”
The letter itself has much positive to recommend it [PDF]. It is just that my main reaction is – you first. Besides I don’t really see Christianity at being at war with Islam in the first place. Where exactly is the Christian intolerance of Muslims in the world? What Muslims are being sentenced to death for converting from Christianity to Islam. What Christian countries ban passing out of the Koran? If anything Christian countries have gone out of their way be supportive of Muslims in areas where they are not even that supportive of Christian belief.
The Catholic Church is of course open to inter-religious dialogue and will always continue with men of good will. The Holy See has found common cause in the past with Muslims to help defeat anti-life measures in the U.N.
I just think these scholars should first clean up the mess in their own backyards. How about letters to those governments where Christians (and especially converts from Islam) are not free to practice their faith.
24 comments
I, for one, believe we should begin considering Islam in light of Paul’s words, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel� not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
An Angel, sounds kinda like how they got the Koran. Hmmm. So that means…
…if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other.
Of course, their definition of “making peace” is converting to Islam. No thanks.
But if the idea is co-existence, then the “you first” idea is a great one.
Looks like the scholars have learned a bit from the Democrat Party.
Make an unfounded accusation and then demand that the accused apologize and mend their ways.
There are 1,000,000 Catholics in Saudi Arabia and there is not a single Catholic church in the Magic Kingdom. Some peace.
“1,000,000 Catholics in Saudi Arabia and there is not a single Catholic church in the Magic Kingdom.”
In 1991, the majority of Eastern Bosnia was Muslim. Now, there are no mosques in Srebrenica, Zepa, Zvornik, and other formerly Muslim majority cities. Why?
The Christians booted them out.
Even if we grant that the Bosnia example is as simplistic as presented here, exceptions do not a rule make. No one, not even atheists, can seriously contend that Christian intolerance of Islam comes withing light years of Islamic intolerance of anything not Islamic.
“No one, not even atheists, can seriously contend that Christian intolerance of Islam comes withing light years of Islamic intolerance of anything not Islamic.”
I know a few medieval historians who may disagree…
…………………………….
mrp, there are probably 1,000,000 Catholics in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, but there are no Catholic churches there either 😉
What does the mass removal of Muslims from Eastern Bosnia (or the mass exodus of Christian Kosovars from Kosovo, for that matter) have to do with the religious oppression of one million Catholics (mostly Filipinos and Syro-Malabar Indians) in Saudi Arabia?
Oh, and Srebrenica’s White Mosque May, 2007
Let’s not celebrate ethnic cleansing in eastern Bosnia. Especially since it’s happening in Kosovo to Christians a couple of hundred miles to the south. I’d throw in the fact that it’s morally abhorrent, but you already knew that.
Interesting find. I will have to read it more closely. One of its points is incontestible: a war between Christians and Muslims would make for a black century, indeed.
This would be the peace the Moehammedans brought to Constantinople in 1453. Include me out.
“I know a few medieval historians who may disagree…”
If you have to go back a thousand years to find your best example, your position would seem to be a weak one. Let’s talk about institutional Christian on Moslem oppression as it is occuring NOW — or at least within living memory.
From the Open Letter (excerpt):
Is Christianity necessarily against Muslims?
In the Gospel Jesus Christ says:
He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. (Matthew 12:30)
For he who is not against us is on our side. (Mark 9:40)
� for he who is not against us is on our side. (Luke 9:50)
According to the Blessed Theophylact�s Explanation of the New Testament, these statements are not contradictions because the first statement (in the actual Greek text of the New Testament) refers to demons, whereas the second and third statements refer to people who recognised Jesus, but were not Christians.
Muslims recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, not in the same way Christians do (but Christians themselves anyway have never all agreed with each other on Jesus Christ�s nature), but in the following way:
�. the Messiah Jesus son of Mary is a Messenger of God and His Word which he cast unto Mary and a Spirit from Him…. (Al-Nisa�, 4:171).
We therefore invite Christians to consider Muslims not against and thus with them, in accordance with Jesus Christ�s words here.
Selective in their use of Christian scripture, are they not? Quite cunning, too.
jeff,
Take a look at the book “while europe slept” a very eye opening book.
I know a few medieval historians who may disagree…
I ‘ll spot them the medeival period and it is still no contest. Thanks for playing.
I suppose it’s a positive thing but I just didn’t really see the point of this letter. The Holy See for its part has already long been committed to fostering good relations with Muslims. And as Jeff points out, it’s the *Islamic* world at large which has yet to respond to this outreach.
Medieval period? Was that in the 600’s when Muslims invaded and took over Zoroastrian Iran, Christian Syria and Christian Egypt and Christian North Africa? Maybe the Middle Ages starts in the 700’s when Muslims invaded and took over Christian Spain and invaded Christian France? Maybe the Middle Ages began in the 800’s when the Muslim warriors invaded and took over Christian Sicily and Christian Sardinia? I guess they forgot they had so much in common with Christians when they they attacked Rome and the tomb of the Apostles. The Middle Ages also includes the Muslim Turkish profanation of the Holy Sites in Israel and abuse of pilgrims; Muslim Turkish destruction of the Byzantines; and various attempts to take Vienna and Europe. [Don’t forget how the janissaries were recruited… young Christian boys in the Balkans stolen from their parents each spring.] (For good measure they invaded Hindu India in 1000.)
Ever since Islam was invented it has been a religion of war and of suffering and even death for those who live in a Muslim dominated area and refuse to accept its doctrines.
Don’t anyone be fooled. Muslims who truly follow Islam are bent on conquest. The only thing that stops them now is the military superiority of their non-Muslim neighbors.
“The Christians booted them out.”
And we bombed the hell out of these Christians for booting them out. I’m waiting for some great Islamic power to unilaterally act out against the persecution of Christians in Islamic lands.
Actually, Bruce, I was thinking of the crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries that caused the death of thousands of Muslims. But I guess as Vince says, history doesn’t matter. In a few short centuries we will probably all have forgotten the horrible impact of 9/11, the tortuous treatment of Muslims at Guantanamo, the famous case of Maher Arar, wrongly accused of being linked to Al-qaeda, and sent by the US to Syria to be tortured for 10 months, the over 1 trillion dollars spent on a war in Iraq that was started in violation of UN resolution 1441, to find WMD that never exisited, has caused a refugee crisis in Jordan, etc,etc.
Before the 1994 genocide, Rwanda was a predominently Catholic country, the Muslim population hovering around 4%. The Muslim population in Rwanda today is 14%. The reason is that Rwandan Muslims played a key role in humanitarian efforts during the 1994 genocide; Muslims have been noted and honored by the national government for their roles in saving the lives of people regardless of their faith. Many people attribute the recent spread of Islam to these humanitarian acts. Perhaps the US may one day regret not going to Rwanda in 1994 to help stop the genocide, but oh ya, I almost forgot, the UN had issued a resolution so they didn’t want to violate it…
Unfortunately, Nietzsche may be right after all: ‘The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly.’
I live in Montreal which has a high population of Muslims. I have Muslim friends. They truly follow Islam and are in no way “bent” on conquest. In fact they have absolutely no appetite for violence of any kind. That is why they chose Canada – as a safe, secure, peaceful and welcoming place to live and raise their families.
to find WMD that never exisited
Ma’am, you do the anti-war cause no credit when you make statements like that. The WMD did exist. We know because they were used. It’s just that they weren’t there when we invaded, likely having been destroyed many years before without complete documentation.
Actually, Bruce, I was thinking of the crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries that caused the death of thousands of Muslims. But I guess as Vince says, history doesn’t matter.
Wel, certainly the anti-Western hysterical version of the Crusades doesn’t matter. I would suggest learning the real history of the Crusades instead of relying on Muslim propaganda.
Russ, There are many accounts of the crusades; the truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere in the middle. However, JPII saw fit to apologize for the crusades in his “Day of Pardon” homily on March 12, 2000:
…” ‘because of the bond which unites us to one another in the Mystical Body, all of us, though not personally responsible and without encroaching on the judgement of God who alone knows every heart, bear the burden of the errors and faults of those who have gone before us’ (Incarnationis mysterium, n. 11). The recognition of past wrongs serves to reawaken our consciences to the compromises of the present, opening the way to conversion for everyone.
While we praise God… we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren, especially during the second millennium. Let us ask pardon for the divisions which have occurred among Christians, for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions.”
“…the tortuous treatment of Muslims at Guantanamo…”
Right.
I wonder what would happen if scholars told leading Muslim clerics to not wage war against Christians on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes.
Hold on, we have a recent answer to that question. Riots, burning the Pope in effigy, and killing a nun.
Bill- the media doesn’t always report everything…
for example Burnt, I wonder what would happen if the Pope stated before the 2003 invasion of Iraq that this war would be a defeat for humanity which could not be morally or legally justified.
I wonder what would happen if, in the weeks and months before the U.S. invaded Iraq, not only the Holy Father, but also one Cardinal and Archbishop after another at the Vatican spoke out against a “preemptive” or “preventive” strike. The Pope spoke out almost every day against war and in support of diplomatic efforts for peace.
I wonder what would happen if John Paul II sent Cardinal Pio Laghi, a friend of the Bush family, to remonstrate with the U.S. President before the war began. Pio Laghi said such a war would be illegal and unjust. The message was clear: God is not on your side if you invade Iraq.
I wonder what would happen if Americans were largely unaware of the depth and importance of the opposition of Church leaders to an attack on Iraq, since for the most part the mainstream media did not carry the stories. In the same way, many Americans were unaware that Pope John Paul II spoke against the first Gulf War 56 times.
I wonder what would happen if we actually took to heart Pope JPII’s 2003 Easter Sunday message: “May faith and love of God make the followers of every religion courageous builders of understanding and forgiveness, patient weavers of a fruitful inter-religious dialogue, capable of inaugurating a new era of justice and peace.”
I wonder if, just maybe, we might one day decide to “go first”…
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