[Dialogue] Muslim letter in BBC

[George Holcombe]

It is strange that the US media has been totally silent about this  
after two days.

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Home: 512/252-2756
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net


On Oct 12, 2007, at 8:01 PM, Charles or Doris Hahn wrote:

> George, Thanks for this very powerful and
> overwhelmingly important document.  What good news!
> Let's hope the Christian world responds.
> Charles
> --- George Holcombe <geowanda at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> This may be the most important piece of news of the
>> year.
>>
>> George Holcombe
>> 14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
>> Austin, TX 78728
>> Home: 512/252-2756
>> Mobile 512/294-5952
>> geowanda at earthlink.net
>>
>> 
>> Emerging voice of mainstream Islam
>> By Robert Pigott
>> Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News
>>
>> A total of 138 of the world's top Muslim leaders,
>> clerics and
>> academics have written an open letter to the Pope,
>> the Archbishop of
>> Canterbury and other leaders of the Christian world.
>>
>>
>>
>> It warns that world peace depends on better dialogue
>> between them,
>> and points to the fundamental beliefs each have in
>> common.
>>
>> But the real significance of the initiative lies in
>> the creation of a
>> powerful new lobby in world politics.
>>
>> It is certainly not the first time that Christian
>> and Muslim leaders
>> have referred to their shared values and traditions.
>>
>>
>>
>> In the years of tension since 9/11 it has been a
>> frequent
>> accompaniment to inter-faith meetings and projects
>> aimed to mend the
>> fractured and suspicious relationship between some
>> Muslims and
>> Christians.
>>
>> But the letter, written by ayatollahs, muftis,
>> sheikhs, sultans,
>> professors and ministers, has taken this assertion
>> of cousinly - even
>> brotherly - relations to another level.
>>
>> That is partly because the signatories have a
>> considerable personal
>> influence, in countries as diverse as Russia, Egypt,
>> Nigeria, Saudi
>> Arabia, Malaysia and Yemen.
>>
>>
>>
>> Scripture
>>
>> "Looking down the list of signatories, there is one
>> person after
>> another with large followings, often numbered in
>> millions," said
>> David Ford, professor of divinity at Cambridge
>> University.
>>
>> "The fact that they've signed it means it will be
>> taken seriously at
>> the grass roots."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Now finally there is a platform, a mode, for the
>> moderate,
>> mainstream, traditional Muslim leaders to come
>> together and find
>> consensus
>> David Ford, professor of divinity at Cambridge
>> University
>> Just what are the revelations that this impressive
>> cast-list has
>> signed up to?
>>
>> The letter contains a clearly written account of the
>> passages in the
>> Koran and the Bible that illustrate close
>> similarities in the most
>> fundamental doctrine of Christianity and Islam.
>>
>> For example each of them insists that followers
>> worship only one God,
>> and requires them to love their neighbours as
>> themselves. Other
>> passages strike a note of conciliation, even
>> humility.
>>
>> For example, there is the Koran's acknowledgement
>> that the truths
>> revealed to the Prophet Muhammad - the founder of
>> Islam - had already
>> been shown to the prophets of the Old Testament (the
>> Jewish Torah)
>> and the New Testament, including, of course, Jesus
>> himself.
>>
>> The document also picks out the verses in the Koran
>> which tell
>> Muslims that they should treat the followers of
>> these Jewish and
>> Christian prophets with particular friendship and
>> respect.
>>
>> It also cites the Koran's specific instruction that
>> these "people of
>> the Scripture" worship the same God as Muslims.
>>
>> But the real significance of this gesture, is that
>> it is the first
>> act of a group that intends to become the
>> "international voice" of
>> mainstream Islam, missing for so long.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> It's easy to see how dangerous it is for there to be
>> so little
>> understanding
>> Professor Aref Ali Nayed
>>
>>
>> It has been one of the problems of dialogue between
>> Christians and
>> Muslims that Islam has lacked a coherent mainstream
>> view.
>>
>> It has little of the hierarchies that characterise
>> Churches, headed
>> by leaders who can credibly represent the faith.
>>
>> Not only is there no Muslim pope, but there is
>> barely a single voice,
>> or even group of voices, generally acknowledged to
>> speak for "global
>> Islam".
>>
>> It has produced a vacuum into which it has been easy
>> for extremists
>> to move, whether locally in a town or city, in a
>> country or in whole
>> regions.
>>
>> Extremists, from maverick imams to the leaders of
>> al-Qaeda, have
>> found it easy to claim to speak for Islam.
>>
>>
>>
>> Response
>>
>> "So often the extremists have been able to use the
>> modern media,"
>> says Professor Ford.
>>
>> "Now finally there is a platform, a mode, for the
>> moderate,
>> mainstream, traditional Muslim leaders to come
>> together and find
>> consensus."
>>
>> Moderate Muslims have often been criticised for what
>> is perceived to
>> be their failure to speak out on more difficult
>> issues than the
>> shared basics of faith.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> As well as Muslim terrorism, they include the lack
>> of democracy in
>> Muslim countries and the often violent treatment of
>> Christian
>> minorities, especially converts to Christianity.
>>
>> One of the authors of the letter, Professor Aref Ali
>> Nayed, says: "We
>> can't solve all of Islam's problems with a single
>> document."
>>
>> However he agrees that what the 138 have begun with
>> their statement
>>
> === message truncated ===>
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