Listen to it all (starts just past 13 minutes in).
Update: there is more from Time Magazine here, including this:
It is time that Muslims and Christians recognized just how similar they are ”” the fate of the world depends on it. That’s the message being sent out today by 138 Muslim leaders and scholars in an open letter to their Christian counterparts saying that world peace hinges on greater understanding between the two faiths.
The 29-page letter is addressed to Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and 25 other Christian leaders. Organized by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan, it’s the first time so many high-profile Muslims have come together to make such a public call for peace. Launched first in Jordan this morning, and then in other countries over the course of the day, the letter’s big unveiling takes place at a joint press conference by Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, and John Esposito, Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. By pointing out the similarities between the Bible and the Koran, between Christianity and Islam, the letter’s signatories are hoping to convince Christian leaders to “come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions.”
Quoting from both holy texts, the letter notes that both Christianity and Islam require believers to believe in only one god and insists that it is the same god. It points out that both religions are founded on goodwill, not violence, and that many of the fundamental truths that were revealed to Muhammad are the same ones that came to other Christian and Jewish prophets.
Because of this, the letter says, Muslims are duty-bound by the Koran to treat believers of other faiths with respect and friendship ”” and that Muslims expect the same in return. “As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them ”” as long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes.”
The initial response of the Archbishop of Canterbury can be found [url=http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/prabcmuslimletter.html]here[/url].
I agree that Christians and Muslims must get along or our world is doomed. I will accept that the majority of Muslims believe that also when Christians are allowed to build churches and evangelize in all the Muslim Countries like Muslims are allowed to build mosques and evangelize in Europe and the United States.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
I can only live in a very tension filled peace with Islam as long as we the other “children of the book” are considered dhimini. Islam considers itself the only true religon and is bound by the Quran to impose this even with the sword (gun?).
BillB
Islam considers itself the only true religon and is bound by the Quran to impose this even with the sword (gun?).
Let me ask you, is Christianity the only true religion? And where in the Q’uran do you find that Muslims must impose Islam evvenn with the aword?
Wahhabi consternation notwithstanding, I believe the Sufis (such as [url=http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/10/20071005_b_main.asp]Rumi[/url], whose 800th birthday just passed) will have a key role in any future Muslim-Christian (or Muslim-Jew, or Muslim-Hindu) peace-work.
#4 Brian: “Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe neither in God nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what God and His apostle [Muhammad] have forbidden, and do not embrace the true Faith [Islam], until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued.” Koran, 9:29.
I was struck by the following passage:
The problem with that is this doctrine called “The Trinity.” Christians believe that the nature of God involves a unity of three Persons (one of whom was also a living man). Christians believe that this claim lies at the very heart of their religion. For muslims it is equally essential to reject this as a blasphemous falsehood.
The God described by Islam is manifestly NOT the God described by Christianity. That doesn’t by itself mean that Muslims are bad people, or that Muslims and Christians can’t and shouldn’t love each other and be respectful to each other. But it does mean that the two accounts of God are fundamentally and irreconcilably different.
There are other issues that are just as deep that divide the two religions. For example, there is this thing called the Crucified God and the Scandal of the Cross — Islam has a huge problem with God showing himself not in might and glory and wisdom and riches, but in weakness and foolishness. Islam has trouble with the idea of a God who came principally for sinners and NOT for the righteous. And so on. But those many other issues, the Trinity is a good place to start in exploring the non-negotiable differences in how the two religions describe God (the views of Ann Holmes Redding aside, of course).
Quick Postscript: It’s easy to find silly theology in TEC. But it’s worth observing that even the church of Rome has its share of people eager to erase the distinctiveness of the Christian faith. See below — it’s from a recent NEWS OF THE WEIRD column.
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/nw070930.html
[blockquote] [b]
Christians worshipping Allah [/b]
In August, a Roman Catholic bishop in the Netherlands, Martinus Muskens, suggested that Christians start referring to God as “Allah” as a way of relieving world tensions. “Allah is a very beautiful word. … What does God care what we call him? It is our problem.” A priest in Rome said Muskens’ intentions were good, “but his theology needs a little fine-tuning.” Muskens said he spent eight years in Indonesia, where Catholic priests used “Allah” during mass.
[/blockquote]
#7, 8 John,
I think you must have overlooked the [url=http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p3.htm#III]Catechism of the Catholic Church[/url]:
[blockquote][b]841[/b] The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”[/blockquote]
Rome has been wrong before.
#9… I am always fascinated by the official pronouncements of the church of Rome. Thanks for sharing! I always feel like a bit like an anthropologist investigating some strange and intriguing society when anyone tells me something new about them.
Since, however, I don’t regard the Magesterium as the definer of Christian doctrine, it didn’t occur to me consult the Vatican’s web site before making my post; nor now that I have read the section you quoted does it alter the views I expressed.
I’ll admit to finding section 841 a bit unclear. What exactly do they mean do you think? Are they saying that Islam is just a “different vehicle to the divine” as our PB phrases it? What exactly do they mean when they say that God’s plan of salvation “includes” all Muslims?
Personally, I like their section 843 better:
[blockquote]
The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.”
[/blockquote]
That’s basically a paraphrase of C.S. Lewis’s view. Islam is then a shadow of the truth, but having some value as far as it goes, and only insofar as it might lead to an understanding of the Gospel and Christ.
Thanks again for directing me to the Catechism. I am very fond of my Roman brothers, in all seriousness and truth.
#9 John,
God forbid that Rome would claim Islam as just a “different vehicle to the divine”. But the consensus at the Vatican seems to be that the Muslims (similarly to the Jews) worship the One God of Abraham. Like the Jews, the Muslims naturally do not possess full revelation and knowledge of said One God, but at least they do worship the One God.
In any event, Rome stands by its claim that the Church “subsists” in the Catholic Church, and that — if anyone be saved — all are saved by Christ, via the Church.
I am always concerned when folks say that Muslims and Christians “have the same God.” I agree with John Stamper: the true Muslim would NEVER agree that his Allah/God is the same being as the Christian Triune God–quite frankly I observe it’s only non-Muslims who make that assertion!
And a careful reading of the Koran–thanks Katherine, #6–finds many references to the fact that for non-Muslims there are only three options: submission to Islam (as in conversion), subservience to Islam (accepting second-class status as a citizen in the Islamic state) or death.
#13 drjoan,
A true Muslim would never agree that Allah is the same being as the Christian God? I think you spoke too soon:
[blockquote][url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7038992.stm]More than 130 Muslim scholars[/url] have written to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders urging greater understanding between the two faiths.
The letter says that world peace could depend on improved relations between Muslims and Christians.
It identifies the principles of accepting only one god and living in peace with one’s neighbours as common ground between the two religions.
It also insists that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.[/blockquote]
Hi NewTroll (#14). You are certainly right that there are a lot of Muslims (e.g. all the signatories of the letter) who “insist that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.” No one’s disputing that. What drJoan and I are trying to wrap our head around is what these well meaning Muslims could possibly MEAN by that assertion — given the radically different accounts that the two religions given of the nature of this God.
It’s a bit like me and you both having having taken a trip to a vacation resort. The descriptions we both make have some things in common. We both describe it as a resort. We both say we stayed in a hotel. We both say the hotel was a 5-star hotel. We both say the food was great. And so on. But on the other hand, I describe my vacation as being set in a ski resort where the temperature stayed well below freezing and there was loads of snow at a very high altitude; and you say yours was on a tropical island where you spent almost all your time naked on the beach in 90 degree weather. My friends (who went skiing with me) have a history of getting in ugly fights with your friends (who love the beach). So, in the spirit of peace, you and I start saying that actually we both went to the SAME resort, and we should stop fighting about it. Now the aim of brotherly love is fine here: the confusing thing is what you and I could mean by insisting that we went to the same resort WHILE AT THE SAME TIME insisting that mine was a ski resort and yours was a tropical island.
If you look carefully at what drJoan said, she was questioning the likelihood that a true Muslim would claim that the Muslim God is the same as the CHRISTIAN TRIUNE God. They wouldn’t assert “the God I worship is a unity of three Persons.” drJoan is probably right here. What is unclear is what these fuzzy minded people ARE saying if they are not saying that. If I am not saying that my ski resort vacation actually was set on a tropical island, what do I mean by saying we went to the same resort?
I’ll pay more attention to Muslims when they truly start cleaning out the terrorists by their own volition instead of us having to do the job for them. The war we are in (yes a war started on 9/11) is still going on and I firmly believe if we pull out of the Middle East this terror rage will follow us to the US.