Tuesday, October 30, 2007

New possibilities of dialog

A group of Muslim scholars sent a letter to various Christian leaders, including the Roman Pontiff. It is a refreshing opening of dialog after many years of standoffishness. Below is a quote from a recent article in Zenit. I suggest reading the full article.
ZENIT [zenitenglish@zenit.org] The letter sent by the Muslim scholars, noted the pontifical institute, did "not seek refuge in a convenient one-sided protest," but rather placed "themselves as partners within humanity."The response said that a fundamental point of the open letter sent by the Muslims was common ground, in particular the commandment to love one's neighbor: "Only this can guarantee success in a genuine relationship between culturally and religiously diverse communities.""In addition," the letter continues, "as faith always goes together with good works, as the Koran never fails to repeat, [...] love of God is inseparable from love of neighbor."The text sent by Muslim scholars referred to various Christian texts of the Gospel, and the pontifical institute noted, "This is evidence of deep respect and genuine attentiveness to others, while at the same time of a true scientific spirit. In this respect also, we note the emergence of a new attitude."

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