Christians & Muslims Affirm Common Values at Beirut Meeting

BEIRUT —

Muslims and Christian leaders from across the Middle East and Denmark wrapped up a three-day conference on religious understanding Thursday in Beirut by highlighting values, such as mercy, respect and caring for the weak, which both faiths share.

The conference, entitled “Building Greater Understanding between Christians and Muslims,” was organized by the Muslim-Christian Contact Group of the National Council of Churches in Denmark and the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue. It was supported by the Danish Foreign Ministry.

Reading the final statement, Reverend Riad Jarjour said the conference “had enhanced understanding between Muslims and Christians by focusing on common values which overcome religious and cultural differences.”

The statement said that during the conference, participants discussed issues of faith, common values, religious freedom, coexistence and dialogue between cultures.

Taking part in the conference were Muslims and Christians from Denmark, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq. A follow-up conference will be held in Copenhagen Sept. 25-28.

Jarjour, who is general secretary of the Arab Group for Muslim-Christian Dialogue, said that participants agreed on a common message based on a number of principles.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE 

New Resource from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America on Christian-Muslim Relations

The ELCA has just published a series of eight brochures to help foster positive dialogue between Christians and Muslims in our local communities.  The brochures are free and downloadable.  Here is the link:

TALKING POINTS 

Jews, Christians, Muslims meet to promote neighborliness

More than 200 people from the Presbytery and other Christian denominations, the Multi-faith Peace and Justice Alliance, several Muslim mosques, and Jewish temples from the area participated.

Rev. Dr. Thomas T. Peters, First Presbyterian Church of Stirling, Imam Adel Barhoma of the Islamic Center of Morris County in Rockaway, and Rabbi Benjamin Adler of White Meadow Temple offered opening prayers.

There were presentations on “What is Neighborliness and Being a Good Neighbor” by Imam Mohammad Qatanani, Islamic Center of Passaic County, Guillermo Lopez-Acosta, commissioned lay pastor atRidgefield Park Presbyterian Church and WhartonUnited Community Church, and Rabbi Adler.

The crowd attended the dinner in the Fellowship Hall, broke bread together and chatted. The menu included 15 types of soup, bread, salad and main dishes to accommodate all three faiths.

The purpose of the dinner was to give participants the opportunity to network and develop relationships showing that their faiths encouraged loving one another.

FULL ARTICLE FROM NORTHJERSEY.COM

Muhammad Liked Christians, Muslims Should Too

by Dr. David Liepert

I have a lot of great friends from a variety of religions, best evidenced by the outpouring of support, affection and prayers when my wife had major cancer surgery last month.

I was truly touched when I received word of prayer services in churches, mosques and synagogues literally from around the world. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for all your earnest kindness. My wife was particularly moved to learn that across her birth country of Pakistan and the Middle East, food was donated and hungry people were fed in her name. God bless you all.

But my agnostic friends also deserve a shout-out. Because even though they weren’t sure whether their prayers could do any good, they were in there with me throughout all the same, doing everything they could think of to help out too, as far as I’m concerned doing just as good of a job honoring God’s commands that we look after each-other as everyone else did, even though they’re not even sure whether God exists or not!

However, it’s the prayers I want to talk about.

Because although my Muslim and Jewish friends didn’t feel it necessary to clarify exactly which God they were praying to—because everyone of us knows we pray to the same one—many of my Christian friends; respectfully, kindly and to my mind tragically, felt they needed to assure me they were praying to the God of Abraham rather than to Jesus, because they thought I’d be offended otherwise.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE AMERICAN MUSLIM

Pope of Egyptian Church Proposes Dialogue with Islamists Following Election

Pope Shenouda III, head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, held a meeting on Thursday with a delegation from the Anglican Church concerning a proposal to begin dialogue with Islamist groups that recently won a significant number of seats in parliamentary elections.

Shenouda and a number of senior bishops in the Orthodox Church met with the delegation, which was led by the head of the Anglican Communion, Safwat al-Bayaadi.

A church source told the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) that the participants in the meeting discussed means of holding constructive dialogue with Islamists following their triumph in the elections. The participants agreed to respect the people’s choice in Egypt’s first democratic elections, irrespective of the results.

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi-oriented Nour Party have so far won the majority of seats in ongoing parliamentary elections that began on 28 November.

Muslims and Christians: if you don´t communicate, you don´t exist

By Safia Aoude – ALEXANDRIA, Egypt

“We can write anything now!” said an editor of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram to some visiting Danish participants in Cairo as a part of a recent Alexandria-based conference called “Media´s Role for Changing Society and Democracy”. The Egyptian revolution has certainly become a catalyst for free speech and for more political debate in Egyptian media. Yet, the chaotic climate of the revolution has also suffered some backlash. Another editor at Al-Ahram warned that the media in Egypt is now in a political limbo, and can sometimes even motivate the Egyptian public towards sectarian violence and false information. The conference and the changing media landscape made it clear to all participants that both mass media communication as well as Muslim-Christian dialogue were of immense importance during this time of transition in Egypt. And participants did note that the media has the potential to promote positive dialogue. New media, especially social media sites like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, has brought new players into the game of mass communication and challenged the hegemony of the “old” regular mass media. FULL ARTICLE FROM MIDDLE EAST ONLINE

Muslim Shares Interfaith Message from Pulpit

BRANDYWINE HUNDRED, Del. — Not many Muslims get invited to be fill-in preachers at Christian congregations, but that’s what happened to Semab Chaudhry at Silverside Church.

Last month the pharmaceutical audit manager stepped into the pulpit for a Sunday talk explaining the reverence that Islam gives to figures such as Mary, Jesus, Abraham and Moses.

“It’s remarkable how much commonality there is among our faiths,” says June Eisley, a member of the Brandywine Hundred congregation. “I wish all Christians could learn this.”

As Chaudhry, his wife, Rabia, and their three children begin their observance of Ramadan they are full of hope for renewal and drawing closer to God, as this is the holiest time on their religious calendar.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE REPUBLIC 

Initiative launched to share Christian, Jewish, Muslim pulpits

WASHINGTON – It will happen for just one Sunday in June, but on that day, dozens of houses of worship across the United States will open their pulpits to clergy from the other two Abrahamic faiths to read from their scriptures.

The project, called Faith Shared, is set for June 26. A few synagogues and mosques are among those that have signed up for the initiative, as well as Christian communities across the denominational spectrum, including one Catholic church in North Carolina.

“Just having something public is not going to be a big, big deal here, but to have someone come in and read from the Quran and to recognize publicly the existence of Islam and to reverence and respect is a good thing for the church to do,” said Jesuit Father Pat Earl, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Charlotte, N.C.

The project is co-sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights First.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CATHOLIC REVIEW

Countering Stereotypes: “My Faith, My Voice”

Good News Amidst the Bad: A Christian-Muslim Potluck in Alaska

The world knows about Terry Jones and his burning of the Quran in Florida. The one burning begat more, far across the oceans, and innocent people died.

Closer to home, it was comforting to see a more constructive exploration of the differences among us. On Saturday, members of the Muslim community in Fairbanks joined the congregation at Christ Lutheran Church on Farmers Loop for a potluck and a round of stories about their lives and ways of life.

Such moments don’t make more than local news, so few people hear about them outside the communities involved. We can only hope that what such events lack in publicity, they make up in numbers. If every town in America held such gatherings, people would know through their neighbors that they are not threatened by a particular religion so much as a particular way of behaving.

Violence, banishment and discrimination are behaviors that divide and threaten. Wherever they are found, people must turn away to seek peaceful, respectful interaction.

That’s what the people gathered at the Christ Lutheran Church were doing. They started by choosing to focus on their shared humanity rather than their differences in doctrine.

That’s not a bad choice. We can and should disagree with one another about our differences at times, because they are real and they can have real consequences. Our actions and our prescriptions for others are influenced by the specific religious doctrines to which we hitch our souls and to which our cultures owe their roots. Many doctrines drive the world, so we can’t expect perfect moral harmony.

But all of us, of all faiths, should expect that these disagreements and differences are shared peacefully and respectfully. It’s the only way any of us will listen anyway. And what better place to start the conversation than over a dinner table?

FROM THE FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS MINER