Muslims, Catholics Discredit Religion-Inspired Violence Vatican and Sunni Voices Join in Historic Declaration

Cairo, Egypt: March 01, 2010, (PCTV Newsdesk)

Muslim and Catholicrepresentatives have joined their voices in rejecting the manipulation ofreligion to justify political interests, violence or discrimination.

A historic declaration signed by the president of the Pontifical Councilfor Interreligious Dialogue and a Sunni leader from the Al-Azhar universitymarked the conclusion of an annual meeting held last week in Cairo. Themeetings gather members of the pontifical council and the Al-Azharpermanent committee for dialogue among the monotheistic religions.

Sheik Muhammad Abd al-Aziz Wasil and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran were theco-signers.

The final declaration explains that the participants were received by thegrand imam of Al-Azhar, professor and sheik Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi.Cardinal Tauran thanked him for having condemned the acts of violence inwhich six Christians and a Muslim policeman died in Naga Hamadi, Egypt, onthe past Orthodox Christmas, and for having expressed solidarity to thevictims' families and reaffirmed the equality of rights and duties of allcitizens, regardless of their religious membership.

Sheik Tantawi said he only did what he thought was his duty in face ofthose tragic events.

Manipulation

With the help of documents presented by Monsignor Bernard Munono Muyembeand by professor Abdallah Mabrouk al-Naggar, the committee analyzed thetopic "The Phenomenon of Confessional Violence: To Understand thePhenomenon and Its Causes and Propose Solutions, Making ParticularReference to the Role of Religions in This Connection."

At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to make theserecommendations: "to pay greater attention to the manipulation of religionwith political objectives or of another character that can be a source ofviolence; to avoid discrimination in virtue of religious identity; to openthe heart to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, necessary conditionsfor a peaceful and fruitful coexistence."

Muslims and Catholics urged the public "to recognize similarities andrespect differences as requisite of a culture of dialogue, based on commonvalues; to affirm that both sides commit themselves again in therecognition and respect of the dignity of every human being, withoutdistinction of ethnic or religious membership; to oppose religiousdiscrimination in all fields -- just laws should guarantee a fundamentalequality; to promote ideals of justice, solidarity and cooperation toguarantee a peaceful and prosperous life for all."

The bilateral meeting ended with the commitment to "oppose withdetermination any act that tends to create tensions, divisions andconflicts in societies; to promote a culture of mutual respect and dialoguethrough education in the family, in schools, in churches and in mosques,spreading a spirit of fraternity between all persons and the community; tooppose attacks against religions by means of social communication."

Finally Catholics and Muslims called for "ensuring that the preaching ofreligious leaders, as well as school teaching and textbooks, not emitstatements or make references to historical events that, directly orindirectly, can arouse a violent attitude among followers of the differentreligions."

Nuanced

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, papal nuncio in Egypt and the Holy See'srepresentative to the Cairo-based Arab League, spoke with Vatican Radiolast week about that final point.

He said that textbooks have inaccuracies "and things that don't helpappreciate the other religion or the other person." This problem appliesnot only to the history of religion, but to the teaching of history itself,he suggested.

"There is work to be done in fact to give a more nuanced view of certainperiods of history, whether it is the Islamic invasions of other countriesor whether it is the Crusades," Archbishop Fitzgerald proposed.

The committee scheduled its next meeting in Rome on Feb. 23-24, 2011.

News source: www.zenit.org