VATICAN - “Without peace between Christians and Muslims, there can be no peace in the world”: leading members of almost all Muslim countries, Shiite and Sunni, address a Letter to Christian leaders

Monday, 15 October 2007

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Among those who signed a Letter (written a year after the Letter addressed to Benedict XVI by 38 leading Muslims in answer to the Pope's “lecture” in Regensburg) is the secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a member of the Superior Council of Saudi Ulema, a member of the Nigeria, Supreme Council for Muslim Affairs, the secretary general of the Council of Indonesian Ulema, the Grand Muftis of Egypt, Jordan, Bosnia, Russia, Croatia, Kosovo, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Oman, the Mufti of Istanbul, the head of the Fatwa Council of Yemen, ministers and former ministers of Religious Affairs in Algeria, Sudan, Mauritania, Jordan and Morocco, the President of Al-Azhar University, Iranian government and university representatives.
On 12 October Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President del Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue told Vatican Radio: "This Letter is most interesting and quite new, since it comes from both Sunni and Shiite Muslims. It is not polemical, and it contains numerous quotations from the Old and New Testaments. [...] It is a most encouraging sign since it is a demonstration that prejudice can be overcome with goodwill and dialogue. It is a spiritual approach to interreligious dialogue which I would call dialogue of spirituality. Both Muslims and Christians must ask themselves just one question: is God really the most important thing in my life?". The Letter is published today in the Italian daily Il Foglio. (C.E.) (Agenzia Fides 15/10/2007; righe 18; parole 238)


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