The date was fixed eight months ago: the first meeting of the Catholic-Muslim Forum, the body set up to tackle the ideas offered by A Common Word, the letter written by 138 Muslim personalities from more than 40 countries on the theme of dialogue with the Christian world, will be held in Rome from 4th to 6th November. At “Mondo e Missione” we welcomed this event with a full special report that we entitled “When Islam stretches out its hand”. The approaching of the meeting in Rome – which will gather 24 representatives from each side and which will end on 6th November with a papal audience – offers us the occasion to make a first assessment of this initiative. But also to go beyond, because A Common Word is not the only initiative of Muslim-Christian dialogue to have reported significant developments in recent months. Let us try then to sketch out a map of this dialogue which is so important for today’s world.
Let us start with A Common Word. In one year the “official” signatories doubled: from 138 to 271. But in reality this increase is the expression of much wider approval; for instance, almost 6,000 people subscribed online to the text of the letter. And in one year more than 160,000 users visited the website where the letter is written in all languages. Naturally, polemics surrounding certain adhesions were not lacking. For example, the support of Tariq Ramadan, the champion of an European Islam of very ambiguous outlines, sparked debate. Nevertheless, it is a well-established fact that the foundation laid by the 138 scholars’ letter opened a channel. The meeting in Rome follows other meetings where Christian and Muslim representatives held discussions together on the issues brought up by A Common Word. The most important ones took place at Yale University, in the United States, and at Lambeth, the place where the States General of the Anglican Communion are held. But many others have also sprung up at local level; for instance the one promoted in Bangladesh by the Department of Religions at Dhaka University, or the one promoted by the Silsilah Dialogue Institute on the Philippine island of Mindanao. There is also another event scheduled by the promoters of A Common Word: a large interreligious meeting which is due to be held in October 2009 in Jordan in the place where, according to tradition, Jesus was baptized. The idea is that of a meeting where to draw together the conclusions of this path.
Choosing a location exactly in Jordan is not an accidental choice. A Common Word is in fact an initiative promoted by the Aal al Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, a study centre supported by the Jordanian royal family. It is actually King Abdullah’s cousin, Prince Ghazi bin Talal, who is the first signatory. He has been expressly entrusted by the Holy See with the task of choosing the 24 members of the delegation who will participate at the meeting in Rome. Prince Ghazi is a scholar who studied at Cambridge and Princeton, and has been praised by Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi - the sheikh of the great Islamic university of al-Azhar, Cairo – for his efforts to support a sort of ecumenism between the different Muslim trends. He therefore has what it takes to become a protagonist of the Muslim-Christian dialogue. However the political significance of this action is evident to all. In recent months other important events also occurred in the Muslim world, events that help understand how an out-and-out competition to be appointed leader of the dialogue with the Christian world is underway.
Along with the letter of the 138 there were also the initiatives of the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdallah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud. He went to Rome in November for a historical meeting with Benedict XVI during which he, monarch of a dynasty loyal to Wahhabi Islam, always blamed for the strict restrictions imposed on the Christians of the Peninsula, spoke in favour of dialogue with the other religions of the Book. Many thought it was just an expression to suit the occasion. Instead, al Saud went ahead launching an even revolutionary idea: to summon an interreligious meeting in Mecca, the major holy place of the Islamic world of which he is the Guardian. Around this idea – in Mecca in June – he summoned a great inter-Islamic conference. An event that – in representation – probably surpassed A Common Word: for example the “Gotha” of Iranian Shiite Islam, including former president Ali Rafsanjani, took part in the initiative promoted by the Sunni King. And here sheikh Tantawi was present in person. The meeting concluded with a document, the Mecca Declaration, which commits Islam to continue the dialogue with the Christian world.
In the wake of this success, the Saudi King was able to go one step further, summoning an interreligious meeting. Not in Mecca, however (clearly considered by many to be a step that still cannot be proposed), but in Madrid. A symbolic place in any case, because Spain in the Middle Ages was also Islamic, as Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri do not fail to remind us in their messages. So it is, in some way, a matter of border between dar al-Islam (the abode of Islam) and dar al-harb (the abode of war). The conference was held in July and it was a great success for the image of the Saudi crown.
An important note: the Saudi initiative systematically ignores that of Jordan. Both in the speech in Mecca and in the one in Madrid, the King talked about dialogue without any mention to the letter by the 138 Muslim scholars. An attitude that confirms how much politics counts in this kind of initiatives. Besides, rivalry between Riyadh and Amman on Islam is historical: the al Saud family proclaims itself Guardian of Mecca and of Holy Places; the ruling Hashemite family instead proclaims itself direct descendant of the Prophet. Therefore, both families have always put themselves up as points of reference for all Muslims. And if until yesterday this rivalry was based on interpretations of the Koran, today’s era of “clash of civilizations” also brings in the role of interlocutor with the Christian world.
However, there is not only the contest between the two Abdallahs. In the match the Gulf countries also aim to play an important role. They are small but not at all unimportant. Above all because – on account of Asian workers’ migrations –these States now have to take into account Christian minorities, numerically relevant by now. There is, first of all, the case of Qatar, of Emir Hamad bin Khalifa. The one who – to make it clear – funded the birth of Al-Jazeera Station in 1996. His name is known above all because of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, inaugurated in Doha on 15th March 2008 with a solemn liturgy presided by Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, in front of fifteen thousand people. A highly significant event: a new church had not been built in these parts for many years. And - as promised by the Emir - Our Lady of the Rosary should be just the first in a series of structures for the Christian community of Doha. But Qatar is also imposing itself in the field of dialogue for another important event: since 2003, an interreligious conference has been organized in Doha every year. The promoter is the Faculty of Sharia at the University Qatar which is now headed by a woman, Professor Aisha al-Mannai. In the 2008 event, held in May, the Doha Conference went one step further with respect to other Islamic initiatives of the same kind; for the first time among the attending Jews there were also two Israeli rabbis. Something that we may take for granted but that for a great part of the Arab world is still a taboo to overcome.
Next to Qatar there is then the case of Bahrain, a country which has a tradition of pacesetter having been the first, together with Kuwait, to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See. On 9th July, sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa was granted an audience in the Vatican and he officially invited the Pope to visit his country. A highly significant step, as the Apostolic Vicar Paul Hinder explains on page 9. But even beyond the concrete feasibility of this journey, the words written in the release distributed by the Vatican press office following this visit show how the Gulf is an important frontier for the dialogue. “During the interviews, the Vatican authorities,” as it is written in the text, “had the opportunity to thank the King for the hospitality granted to the many Christian immigrants”. Not an omen then, but a thank you. Expressed to the sovereign of a country where Christians now represent 10% of the population.
Next to these new developments, two “academic” channels are still underway, opened some time ago by the Holy See: the common working group between al-Azhar University and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (Egypt) and the group that unites the Vatican ministry and the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue of the Organization for relations and Islamic culture in Teheran (Iran). These two bodies also held their annual sessions in 2008. The group with Al-Azhar tackled the subject “Faith in God and love for the neighbour as foundation of interreligious dialogue” (the topics chosen by the 138 scholars). The group with the Iranian Shiites dealt with “Faith and Reason in Christianity and Islam” (the central topic of the Regensburg address).
How to consider all this ferment, then? Ambiguities are evident to everyone. A conference in Madrid is not sufficient to solve as if by magic the problems related to the concrete exercising of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. But the fact that, in this last year, dialogue left the academic circle to reach also politics is an important development which deserves to be attentively followed. Joint declarations are important but more important is the debate about how to make this dialogue, paying respect to all, also visible within society. In Muslim countries. But also in our cities. There is finally another interesting fact to be reported: both the initiative of the 138 and the Mecca Conference promoted by the Saudi King put the issue of representativeness, of who speaks on behalf of Islam, centre-stage. This is probably a decisive issue. It is common knowledge that Islam has no recognized central authority. However, for Islamic doctrine, consensus is also to be considered as one of the sources. The fact that Muslim representatives of various trends gathered to discuss, focussing not just on mutual recognition but also on dialogue with other religions, is thus another significant development. It may be nice to be in dialogue with some particularly “enlightened” imams, but in order for this path to continue to be walked it is fundamental that this mutual exchange becomes the common attitude in the mosque. Also for that, the road is long. At least now the first steps are visible.
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