‘Dialogue Between Abrahamic Faiths’
Dr. Mohiuddin Waseem
I commend Pope John Paul II whose
quarter century reign has clearly changed the 2000 year history of relations
between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jews. I believe that if time had
permitted him, he would have definitely generated a
similar constructive dialogue with the Muslims as on many occasions he
expressed his wish to do so.
Two important events have drawn
my attention recently. The first is Pope Benedict XVI address to the leaders of
the ‘American Jewish Committee’ in the Vatican and the other one is “Second
World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace” in which 72 Muslim clerics and 72
rabbis have taken part in a three-day conference held in Spain, which was
sponsored by a Paris-based peace foundation Hommes de
Parole.
In the footsteps of Pope John
Paul II the new Pope Benedict is also trying to outreach Muslims and has said
that “Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the one God, Creator of heaven
and earth. It follows, therefore, that all three monotheistic religions are
called to cooperate with one another for the common good of humanity, serving
the cause of justice and peace in the world” (March 16, 2006).
His words reflect his sincere intentions and it is now the duty of Muslim
clerics to seriously take up this initiative and come up with a team of Muslim
scholars which could be assembled under the auspices of ‘The Organization of
Islamic Conference (OIC)’ for this history making event of possibly the first
interfaith dialogue between the three different Abrahamic
faiths.
In the post-holocaust era many
sessions of interfaith dialogues have taken place between the Roman Catholics
and the Jews essentially focusing on the most sensitive issues which affected
the Jewish people, namely, the Church's attitudes towards the common history
related to Christology, its stance in respect to the mission of the Jews and
its position regarding the State of Israel. Like our Jewish brethren, I am
convinced that both Muslims as well as Christians can cite many genuine
grievances from the past but it is the future we all need to focus on and as is
said by the Pope for the purpose of “serving the cause of Justice and peace in
the world”.
I think this noble cause in
itself can serve as an agenda for a possible future dialogue between different Abrahamic faiths which reminds me of the Qur’anic command to Muslims stating, “Let not the hatred of
others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that
is next to piety: and fear God. For God is well acquainted
with all that ye do (Holy Qur’an 5; 8).
Now the conference in Spain
(March 20, 2006) was designed to let religious leaders discuss what role they
can play in conflict resolution and in educating young people about religious
tolerance. It was addressed by the Chief Rabbi of
Editor's Note: This
article was originally published at PakistanLink.com, you
can access the article at http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2006/Apr06/07/02.HTM
