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dlish · 05-03-2010, 11:00 AM

these sort of stories really peeve me off to no end. Every time something happens, i cringe and i pray that it's not a looney muslim that's done something stupid. because that's what it really is. deep down i really do hope that a muslim dude didnt do this. any time a muslim hits the headlines, it's his religion that gets the most attention, not his mental capacity.

It pisses me off even more when some members here seem to think that muslims seem to have 'jihad on their minds'. i'm not even sure if you said that with a straight face. do you even personally know any muslims or associated with a muslim family or had them over for dinner? my guess is no. i dont think your comment even warrants a response to be honest.

dunedan, im sure you already know this, but the chechens were infiltrated by the wahabi ideology brought in by the jihadis in the same way that the jihadis infiltrated iraq after the fall of saddam, and the balkan war in the 90's. we all know that saudi is the source of wahabism all over the world, it produced OBL, but politicoil puts a damper on anything the US can do..until the oil runs out of course.

Dave, i think your pilot needs to do some more reading on one of the most influencial islamic scholars of our time, Hamza Yusuf - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

here's what he had to say after 9/11

Quote:

The worst enemies of Islam are from within - Hamza Yusuf

A Time for Introspection
"The worst enemies of Islam are from within", writes American convert scholar of Islam, Hamza Yusuf.
This article first appeared in Q-News, Europe's largest Muslim magazine.

On September 11th our lives changed forever. We witnessed an act of aggression that in many ways does not have a parallel in past or present times. There are several elements that make this act unique, from the use of civilian planes as weapons of mass destruction to the attack on the most widely recognized skyscrapers in the world. Nor have we ever witnessed the terrible indictment of Islam as having a part to play in such a heinous crime.

Muslims were seen rejoicing in some parts of the world in a display of what can only be called shamaatatul 'aadai', which is rejoicing at the calamities of ones’ enemies. This is something explicitly prohibited in Islam and was never practiced by the Prophet of Mercy, upon him be prayers and peace. We have seen images since of American flags burning to further arouse the wrath of a nation filled with grief, confusion and anger. Again, Islam prohibits the burning of flags according to the explicit verse, “Do not curse [the idols] of those who call on other than Allah, thus causing them to curse Allah out of animosity [toward you] and without knowledge.” This verse prohibits even the cursing of false gods because of the consequences. We have also seen image after image of Muslims with beards and turbans, who by all outward means look religious and pious - but are they really?

Unfortunately, the West does not know what every Muslim scholar knows; that the worst enemies of Islam are from within. The worst of these are the khawaarij who delude others by the deeply dyed religious exterior that they project. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said about them, “When you see them pray you will consider your own prayers insignificant. They recite the Quran but it does not exceed the limits of their throat.” In other words, they don’t understand the true meanings. The outward religious appearance and character of the khawaarij deluded thousands in the past, and continues to delude people today. The Muslims should be aware that despite the khawaarij adherence to certain aspects of Islam, they are extremists of the worst type.

Our Prophet said, peace be upon him, “Beware of extremism in your religion.” Islam is the middle way between excess and neglect. Zealots are a plague upon religion. These extremists come in two types. The first is a reactionary extremist who falls far right of a center-point. Reactionary extremists do not want any pluralism; they view the world in melodramatic, black and white, good and evil terms. They are good and anyone who opposes them is evil. From among the Muslims these are people who ‘excommunicate’ any Muslim who fails to share their interpretations of the Quran. They use takfir [denouncing a Muslim as an unbeliever] and character assassination as a tool for marginalizing any criticism directed at them. They are used often by the Western media in order to scare simple people and cause them to believe that Muslims are insane. Unfortunately, our communities provide them with much fuel to fire their incendiary flames.

The second group are radical extremists, who while they are almost identical with the former group, differ in that they will use violence to further their cause. They are actually worse than the first. They believe like every nefarious secret society before them that ‘the end justifies the means.’ They see any act as acceptable if it will further their ‘cause.’ This is blatantly anti-Islamic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Islam’s means must reflect its noble ends. Any means that does not embody the core truths and ethics of Islam is not from Islam and thus denounced as aberration. Secondly, Islam is not a secret society of conspirators who no one knows what they are planning. Islam declares openly its aims and objectives and these are recognized by good people everywhere as pure and congruent with their own wisdom and traditions. In the case of many of these extremists even the non-Muslims recognize that no religion of any weight could sanction the taking of innocent lives. The Quran says that the Torah and the Gospel have guidance and light and that the Quran came to fulfill these prior dispensations. Good Christians and Jews who believe in God and live ethically upright lives have no frame of reference for such acts, so how could these acts be from Islam, which confirms what has come before it?

Thirdly, they are invariably people who have never taken a true spiritual path to God and nor have they studied the humanities. I can almost guarantee that you will not find a scholar of poetry among the whole vile lot of these people. They have no true knowledge of Arabian culture, which is centered in the idea of futuwwa; a word akin to the western word chivalry. The terrorists posing as journalists who killed Ahmad Shah Masud [Afghan Northern Alliance leader] were cowards of the worst type. Killing themselves was not bravery but stupidity, but killing one’s enemy in such a way is the worst form of treachery and the Arabs have many poems denouncing such type of people.

Our real situation is this: we Muslims have lost theologically sound understanding of our teaching. Islam has been hijacked by a discourse of anger and the rhetoric of rage. We have allowed for too long our mimbars [pulpits] to become bully pulpits in which people with often recognizable psychopathology use anger - a very powerful emotion - to rile Muslims up, only to leave them feeling bitter and spiteful towards people who in the most part are completely unaware of the conditions in the Muslim world, or the oppressive assaults of some Western countries on Muslim peoples. We have lost our bearings because we have lost our theology. We have almost no theologians in the entire Muslim world. The study of kalaam, once the hallmark of our intellectual tradition, has been reduced to memorizing 144 lines of al-Jawhara and a good commentary to study it, at best.

The reality is we are an Umma [worldwide Muslim community] that no longer realizes that Allah is the power behind all power; that it is Allah who subjugates one people to another; that He gives dominion to whom He pleases and He takes it away from whom He pleases. Our understanding of tawhid [oneness of God] has fallen into such disarray that we can no longer introspect when afflictions befall us and then wonder in amazement at why the Americans seem incapable of introspection. Indeed, I personally attended a memorial service in San Francisco with over 30,000 people and the Reverend Amos Brown said in no uncertain terms that America must ask herself what she has done either wittingly or unwittingly to incur the wrath and hate of people around the world. Muslims on the other hand, generally prefer to attack the West as the sole reason for their problems when the truth is we are bankrupt as a religious community and our spiritual bankruptcy has led to our inability to even deliver the message of Islam to Westerners in a time when they were giving us platforms to do so.

It is ironic that the Western media while producing many vile programs on Islam has also produced and aired material of the highest quality with a high level of accuracy only to be vilified by Muslims because it was not good enough. Where is our media? Where are our spokespeople? Where are our scholars? Where are our literary figures? The truth is we don’t have any - and so instead of looking inward and asking painful questions such as why we don’t have such things and such people, we take the simple way out by attacking people whom Allah tells us will do mean things, say bad things and plot against us. And always when we are warned we are told to be patient, to work for the good, to trust in Allah, to return to Allah, to implement our deen [religion].

Conspiracy or not, we are to blame for the terrible backlash against Muslims. The simple reason is that when a crazy Christian does something terrible, everyone in the West knows it is the actions of a mad man because they have some knowledge of the core beliefs and ethics of Christianity. When a mad Muslim does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Islam, not because they hate us but because they have never been told by a Muslim what the teachings of Islam are all about

and here's what he and 137 other scholars had to say on calling for peace and understanding between christianity and islam

Quote:

A Common Word Between Us and You - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Common Word between Us and You is an open letter, dated 13th October 2007, from leaders of the Muslim faith to leaders of the Christian faith. It calls for peace between Muslims and Christians and tries to work for common ground and understanding among both faiths, in line with the Biblical and Quranic commandment to love God, and one’s neighbour. In the short time since its release, “A Common Word” has become the world’s leading interfaith dialogue initiative between Christians and Muslims. It is unprecedented in its scope and success in both the Christian and the Muslim world. The success of the initiative was acknowledged in its being awarded the “Eugen Biser Award” in 2008. That year saw “A Common Word” also receive the “Building Bridges Award” from the UK’s Association of Muslim Social Scientists

Background
“A Common Word between Us and You” is a follow up to a smaller letter, sent in 2006, in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s lecture at the University of Regensburg on 12th September 2006. This lecture, on the subject of faith and reason, had focused mainly on Christianity and what Pope Benedict called the tendency in the modern world to “exclude the question of God” from reason. Islam features in a part of the lecture. The Pope quoted a Byzantine Emperor’s strong criticism of Muhammad’s teachings. Pope Benedict clarified that this was not his own personal opinion, describing the quotation as being of a “startling brusqueness, a brusqueness which leaves us astounded.”

Throughout the world, however, many people thought the Pope’s use of the quote insensitive. A very strong sense of injustice was expressed by many Muslims in response to the speech. One month later, 38 Islamic scholars, representing all branches of Islam, replied to Pope Benedict in “An Open Letter to the Pope,” dated 13th October 2006. One year later, 138 Islamic personalities co signed an open letter entitled “A Common Word between Us and You.” The letter aimed to promote inter faith dialogue.

[edit] Addressees
“A Common Word between Us and You” is addressed to Pope Benedict XVI, the Patriarchs of the Orthodox Churches, the leaders of the larger Christian denominations, and to leaders of Christians everywhere. A list is as follows:

His All Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople
His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa
His Beatitude Ignatius IV, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
His Beatitude Theophilos III, Patriarch of the holy City of Jerusalem
His Beatitude Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
His Beatitude Pavle, Patriarch of Belgrade and Serbia
His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania,
His Beatitude Maxim, Patriarch of Bulgaria,
His Beatitude Ilia II, Archbishop of Mtskheta – Tbilisi, Catholico-Patriarch of All Georgia
His Beatitude Chrisostomos, Archbishop of Cyprus
His Beatitude Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece
His Beatitude Sawa, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Polan
His Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Duerres and All Albania
His Beatitude Christoforos, Metropolitan of the Czech and Slovak Republics
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Apostolic Throne of St Mark
His Beatitude Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians
His Beatitude Ignatius Zakka I, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church
His Holiness Mar Thoma Didymos I, Catholicos of the East on the Apostolic Throne of St Thomas and the Malankara Metropolitan
His Holiness Abune Paulos, Fifth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Tekle Haymanot, Arcbishop of Axum
His Beatitude Mar Dinkha IV, Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East
The Most Reverend and Right Honourable The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams DD
The Right Reverend Mark S Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and President of the Lutheran World Federation
The Reverend George H Freeman, General Secretary, World Methodist Council
The Reverend David Coffey, President of the Baptist World Alliance
The Reverend Setri Nyomi, General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
The Reverend Dr Samuel Kobia, General Secretary, World Council of Churches
[edit] Authorship
The letter is signed by 138 prominent Muslim personalities from a large number of countries from several continents. These include academics, politicians, writers and muftis. Nearly half of the signatories are university academics or scholars. According to the letter’s website, its author was HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan[1].

[edit] Signatories
Since the letter was originally sent on 18th October 2007, there have been a number of new signatories with the result that there are now over 300 Muslim signatories. Great effort was made to ensure signatories represented as broad a range of viewpoints from the Muslim world as possible. Signatories included:

Mustafa Cerić
Timothy Winter
Feisal Abdul Rauf
H A Hellyer
Nihad Awad
Hamza Yusuf
Tareq Al – Suwaidan
Ayatollah Al-Faqih Seyyed Hussein Ismail Al Sadr
Anas Al –Shaikh-Ali
Kabir Helminski
Murad Hofmann
Ali Ajifri
Anwar Ibrahim
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
Nuh ha Mim Keller
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Amr Khaled
Ali Lakhani
Aref Ali Nayed
Rawil Gaynetdin
[edit] Contents of the Letter
List of Addressees
Summary and Abridgement
Love of God
Love of God in Islam
Love of God as the First and Greatest Commandment in the Bible
Love of the Neighbour
Love of the Neighbour in Islam
Love of the Neighbour in the Bible
Come to a Common Word Between Us and You
Notes
Signatories
[edit] Main quotations from the Letter
“Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”

“The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour. These principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity.”

““Of God’s Unity, God says in the Holy Qu’ran: “Say, He is God, the One! God, the Self Sufficient Besought of all! (Al – Ikhlas 112:1-2).” Of the necessity of love for God, God says in the Holy Qu’ran: “So invoke the Name of thy Lord and devote thyself to him with a complete devotion (Al-Muzzammil 73:8).” Of the necessity of love for the neighbour; the prophet Muhammad said: “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbour what you love for yourself.”

“In the New Testament, Jesus Christ said: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One./ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment. / And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 29-31)

“In obedience to the Holy Qu’ran, we as Muslims invite Christians to come together with us on the basis of what is common to us, which is also what is most essential to our faith and practice: the Two Commandments.”

(In Islam)...”the call to be totally devoted and attached to God, heart and soul, far from being a call for a mere emotion or for a mood, is in fact an injunction requiring all-embracing, constant and active love of God. It demands a love in which the innermost spiritual heart and the whole of the soul-with its intelligence, will and feeling – participate through devotion.”

“The Shema in the book of Deuteronomy (6:4-5), a centrepiece of the Old Testament and of Jewish Liturgy, says: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!/You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.””

“In the New Testament, when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is asked about the Greatest Commandment, he answers: “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, the gathered together./Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,/”Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”/Jesus said to him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”/This is the first and greatest commandment./And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” /On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40).”

“The commandment to love God fully is (thus) the First and Greatest Commandment of the Bible.”

“There are numerous injunctions in Islam about the necessity and paramount importance of love for – and mercy towards – the neighbour. Love of the neighbour is an essential and integral part of faith in God and love of God because in Islam without love of the neighbour there is no true faith in God and no righteousness. The Prophet Muhammad said: “None of you has faith until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.” And: “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbour what you love for yourself.””

“Whilst Islam and Christianity are obviously different religions – and whilst there is no minimising some of their formal differences – it is clear that the Two Greatest Commandments are an area of common ground and a link between the Qu’ran, the Torah and the New Testament.”

“In the Holy Qu’ran, God Most High tells Muslims to issue the following call to Christians (and Jews-the People of the Scripture): “Say: O people of the Scripture! Come to a common word between us and you: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside God. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).” (Aal’Imran 3:64)”

“As Muslims, we ay to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them – so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes, (in accordance with the verse of the Holy Qu’ran (Al-Mumtahinah, 60:8)”

“Muslims recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah, not in the same way Christians do (but Christians themselves anyway have never all agreed with each other on Jesus Christ’s nature), but in the following way: ...the Messiah Jesus son of Mary is a Messenger of God and His Word which He cast unto Mary and a Spirit from Him..(Al – Nisa 4: 171). We therefore invite Christians to consider Muslims not against and thus with them, in accordance with Jesus Christ’s words here.”

“Finding common ground between Muslims and Christians is not simply a matter for polite ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders. Christianity and Islam are the largest and second largest religions in the world and in history. Christians and Muslims reportedly make up over a third and over a fifth of humanity respectively. Together they make up more than 55% of the world’s population, making the relationship between these two communities the most important factor in contributing to meaningful peace around the world. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world’s inhabitants. Thus our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake.”

“Let us respect each other, be fair, just and kind to one another and live in sincere peace, harmony and mutual good will.”

[edit] Positive Reaction
Response by Professor David F. Ford, Director, Cambridge Inter–Faith Programme 13th October 2007: “This historic agreement gives the right keynote for relations between Muslims and Christians in the 21st century...there are three main reasons why this is so important. First, it is unprecedented in bringing together so many of the leading religious authorities and scholars of Islam and uniting them in a positive, substantial affirmation. This is an astonishing achievement of solidarity, one that can be built on in the future. Second, it is addressed to Christians in the form of a friendly word, it engages respectfully and carefully with the Christian scriptures, and it finds common ground in what Jesus Himself said is central: love of God and love of neighbour....third it opens a way forward that is more helpful for the world than most others at present in the public sphere....it challenges Muslims and Christians to live up to their own teachings and seek political and educational as well as personal ways to do this for the sake of the common good.”
Response by the Right Honourable Tony Blair 13th October 2007: “This is the only way, in the modern world, to make sense of different history and culture, so that, instead of defining ourselves by reference to difference, we learn to recognise the values we share and define a shared future.”
Response by Yale Divinity School’s Centre for Faith and Culture 13th October 2009: “What is so extraordinary about A Common Word between Us and You” is not that its signatories recognise the critical character of the present moment in relations between Christians and Muslims. It is rather the deep insight and courage with which they have identified the common ground between the Muslim and Christian communities. What is common between us lies not in something marginal, nor in something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something absolutely central to both: love of God and love of neighbour...that so much common ground exists – common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith – gives hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together. That this common ground consists in love of God and of neighbour gives hope that deep cooperation between us can be a hallmark of the relations between our two communities.”
Response by the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams DD: “We are deeply appreciative of the initiative you have taken and welcome “A Common Word between Us and You” as a significant development in relations between Christians and Muslims...to your invitation to enter more deeply into dialogue and collaboration as part of our faithful response to the revelation of God’s purpose for humankind, we say: Yes! Amen.”
Comment by H.H. Pope Benedict XVI at the King Hussein Mosque in Jordan on Saturday May 9th, 2009:
‘ …. and the more recent Common Word letter which echoed a theme consonant with my first encyclical: the unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbor, and the fundamental contradiction of resorting to violence or exclusion in the name of God (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 16)’.

[edit] Negative Reaction
The Common Word website Frequently Asked Questions section [2] addresses much of the criticism of the letter's perceived lack of inclusiveness: "This document is a first step, but one that strives to lay a solid foundation for the construction of many worthy edifices. The document can not be expected to do everything at once. Moreover, many of these issues were already addressed in the Amman Message. [4] The website further acknowledges concerning the letter being a form of "propaganda": "If you mean by that witnessing and proclaiming one’s faith with compassion and gentleness, then yes. If you mean forcing one’s views on others, then no."

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, a Vatican official, welcomed dialogue but commented that real dialog with Muslims is difficult. He pointed out imbalances, such as opposition or limitations to the building of churches in some Muslim countries, whilst in Christian countries, Muslims are free to build Mosques. He also said, "Muslims do not accept that one can discuss the Koran in depth, because they say it was written by dictation from God.... With such an absolute interpretation, it is difficult to discuss the contents of faith." [3] However, Cardinal Tauran is quoted as saying that his remarks were not exclusivist and that Muslims and Christians are to engage in a substantive dialogue concerning theological and spiritual foundations. [4]

[edit] Follow-up
A Workshop and Conference was held at Yale University, USA between 24th and 31st July 2008. The conference was entitled, “Loving God and Neighbour in Word and Deed: Implications for Muslims and Christians.” The conference was convened by the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture in collaboration with the Royal Al –Bayt Institute and held at Yale University. Over 120 leading Muslim and Christian leaders and scholars attended the event. A statement was issued at the end of the conference which included the following: “Participants of the conference agreed that: 1. Muslims and Christians affirm the unity and absoluteness of God. We recognise that God’s merciful love is infinite, eternal and embraces all things. This love is central to both our religions and is at the heart of the Judeao-Christian-Islamic monotheistic heritage.2. We recognise that all human beings have the right to the preservation of life, religion, property, intellect, and dignity. No Muslim or Christian should deny the other these rights, nor should they tolerate the denigration or desecration of one another’s sacred symbols, founding figures or places of worship.3. We are committed to these principles and to furthering them through continuous dialogue. We thank God for bringing us together in this historic endeavour and ask that He purify our intentions and grant us success through His all encompassing Mercy and Love.4. We Christian and Muslim participants meeting together at Yale for the historic “A Common Word” conference denounce and deplore threats made against those who engage in interfaith dialogue. Dialogue is not a departure from faith; it is a legitimate means of expression and an essential tool in the quest for the common good.”

A conference, titled “A Common Word and Future Muslim-Christian Engagement,” was hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Inter Faith programme and the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute and held at the University of Cambridge with a final session at Lambeth Palace between 12th and 15th October 2008. The conference brought together a small group of scholars and religious leaders from the Muslim and Christian communities for discussion and fellowship. A communiqué was issued at the end of the conference which included the following: “we are conscious that our meeting represented the most significant gathering of international Muslim leaders ever to take place in the United Kingdom, matched by a similarly wide diversity of traditions and geographical backgrounds amongst the Christian participants....We have committed ourselves to the following over the coming year:

To identify and promote the use of educational materials, for all age groups and in the widest possible range of languages, that we accept as providing a fair reflection of our faiths
To build a network of academic institutions, linking scholars, students and academic resources, with various commitments and teams which can work on shared values
To identify funds to facilitate exchanges between those training for roles of leadership within our religious communities
To translate significant texts from our two religious traditions for the use of the other
As we prepare to return, each to our own countries and contexts, we resolve to act on the oft repeated desire to find the means of ensuring that the two letters we have discussed and the wonderful fruits of our time together are spread amongst our co religionists, that the spirit of collaboration, mutual respect and desire for greater understanding may be the mark of our relationship for the benefit of all humankind.”
Between 4th-6th November 2008 the first seminar of the Catholic-Muslim forum was held at in Rome, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Inter Religious Dialogue and the Royal Al-Bayt Institute in Amman. The seminar culminated in an audience with Pope Benedict XVI at which an address was made by Sheikh Mustafa Ceric and Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

Pope Benedict’s address included the following: “I am well aware that Muslims and Christians have different approaches in matters regarding God. Yet we can and must be worshippers of the one God who created us and is concerned about each person in every corner of the world. Together we must show, by our mutual respect and solidarity, that we consider ourselves members of one family: the family that God has loved and gathered together from the creation of the world to the end of human history.”

Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s address included the following:”With so many profound similarities, why then have we had such a long history of confrontation and opposition? The answer is that we of course also have our differences which have providentially kept Christianity and Islam distinct and separate. Let us mention just a few of them. We emphasise Divine Unity and reject the idea of a triune God while you emphasise the Trinity while believing God to be One. We and you both revere Christ but in a different manner, and we do not accept the Christian account of the end of His earthly life. And yet, we Muslims also accept Christ as the Messiah (al Masih) and expect his Second Coming at the end of the history of present humanity. We emphasise Divine Law (al- shari’ah) as rooted in the Qu’ranic revelation, while Christ asserted his break with the Law in the name of the Spirit. Therefore, Christians do not have the same conception of Divine Law as do Jews and Muslims. Nor do Christians have a sacred language as does Islam, but have used, and some still do use, several liturgical languages. You and we, we both believe in religious freedom, but we Muslims do not allow an aggressive proselytising in our midst that destroys our faith in the name of freedom any more than Christians would if they were in our situation. The encounter of Christianity with modernism, including secular humanism and rationalism associated with the Age of Enlightenment, has also been very different from the experience of that encounter with Islam. Perhaps then we can each learn something from the other in this very significant matter. We should join together in the battle against the desacralising and anti religious forces of the modern world, and joining effort should bring us closer together. Secularism would certainly not be a source for the creation of further distance between us.”

The Final Declaration of the Catholic Muslim Forum at Rome included the following: “We profess that Catholics and Muslims are called to be instruments of love and harmony among believers, and for humanity as a whole, renouncing any oppression, aggressive violence and terrorism, especially that committed in the name of religion, and upholding the principles of justice for all.”

During a visit to the Middle East by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on 9th May 2009, His Holiness made a speech to an assembly of religious leaders at the King Hussein State Mosque, Jordan. In the course of that speech he said the following about “A Common Word”:

“Such initiatives clearly lead to a greater reciprocal knowledge, and they foster a growing respect for what we hold in common and for what we understand differently. Thus, they should prompt Christians and Muslims to probe even more deeply the essential relationship between God and His world so that together we may strive to ensure that society resonates in harmony with the divine order. In this regard, the co operation found here in Jordan sets an encouraging and persuasive example for the region, and indeed the world, of the positive, creative contribution which religion can and must make to civic society.”

The Eugen Biser Award was conferred on HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, Sheikh Al –Habib All-Jifri and Reisu –l-Ulema Dr Mustafa Ceric on 22nd November 2008. The award was received by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, Sheikh Al-Habib All-Jifri and Reisu –l-Ulema Dr Mustafa Ceric, in recognition of their contribution to Muslim – Christian dialogue. In the course of his speech of acceptance HRH Prince Ghazi said: “We were aiming to try and spread peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims all over the world, not through governments and treaties but on the all-important popular and mass level, through the world’s most influential popular leaders precisely – that is to say through the leaders of the two religions. We wanted to stop the drum beat of what we feared was a growing popular consensus (on both sides) for world wide (and thus cataclysmic and even apocalyptic) Muslim –Christian jihad/crusade. We were keenly aware, however, that peace efforts required also another element: knowledge. We thus aimed to try to spread proper basic knowledge of our religion in order to correct and abate the constant and unjust vilification of Islam, in the West especially....I would like to say that “A Common Word” does not signal that Muslims are prepared to deviate from or concede one iota of any of their convictions in reaching out to Christians – nor, I expect, the opposite. Let us be crystal clear: A Common word is about equal peace, NOT about capitulation.”

Numerous conferences, workshops, speeches and other inter faith activities inspired by or exploring “A Common Word” have appeared spontaneously, throughout the world. These have included lectures and workshops in Cambridge University in February 2009, in Oman in March and April 2009, and, also in 2009, in the USA, Egypt and Sudan. Symposiums took place at the Mediterranean Dialogue of Cultures in 2008, the Brookings Institute in Qatar in 2009, the Fuller Theological Seminary in 2009, the Islamic Society of North America Conference in 2009 and Yale University in 2009.

A Conference, hosted by Georgetown University, the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding and the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought and entitled “A Common Word between Us and You A Global Agenda for Change” was held between 6th and 8th October 2009 at Georgetown University. The purpose of the conference was to identify suitable projects to further the aims of “A Common Word” across the world.

[edit] Publications
A number of academic books and journals have emerged in the past 12 months dedicated to “A Common Word:”

HRH Prince Ghazi, Professor Miroslav Volf and Merissa Yarrington edited a book about the initiative for the publisher Eerdmans
A book was prepared by Georgetown Professor Ibrahim Kalin for the academic publisher Palgrave – Macmillan (which is due to be released in 2010)
Georgetown University’s Centre for Muslim – Christian Understanding has published an Occasional Paper on the initiative entitled “A Common word and the Future of Muslim Christian Relations”
The Washington DC based academic journal Sophia, and the Beirut Theological Seminary have dedicated issues to “A Common Word.”
The Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought issued a booklet summarising issues related to “A Common Word.”
Islamica Magazine dedicated a dossier to the document, Issue 21 released February 2009.
References to A Common Word in Speeches

Reference to A Common Word has been made in a number of important speeches, including the main sermon at the traditional, presidential post inauguration service at the National Cathedral, Washington DC for President Barack Obama on 21st January, 209. The reference was made by The Reverend Sharon E Watkins during the course of her sermon. Elsewhere, the former US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, referred to A Common Word during her testimony before the US Senate in February 2009, and Pope Benedict XVI referred to A Common Word on several occasions, on 8th and 9th May 2009, during the course of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Practical Projects inspired by A Common Word

In the course of 2008 “A Common Word” inspired a number of initiatives between Muslims and Christians. Examples are as follows:

A project sponsored by the NGO “Habitat for Humanity.”
The establishment of C1, a high level, international forum for the improvement of Muslim Christian relations, co chaired by The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Richard Chartres, Lord Bishop of London, and His Excellency, Dr Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt
A film documentary produced in Arabic and English, by “Ten Thousand Films”[5] will help in spreading “A Common word” around as wide an international audience as possible
The establishment of an office in Sohan, Islamabad dedicated to the improvement of Muslim Christian relations in Pakistan
[edit] Press
Nearly 700 articles have appeared about “A Common Word” in English language press outlets around the world. Virtually every newspaper in the Middle East, and the West has run at least an article on the initiative. There is a long list of press cuttings about the initiative on the A Common Word website.[6]

[edit] Website
The website for A Common Word was launched on 10th October 2007 at The Official Website of A Common Word. The site includes a “pop up” box which asks visitors to endorse the letter. As at 29th September 2009 the site had recorded 7,174 endorsements of the message, out of around 275,000 visitors to the website.

The official website contains the full text of “A Common Word between Us and You,” a list of signatories, addressees, responses, media resources (including a regular update of media comment), downloads and translations, new signatories, pictures and a variety of other information about a variety of other activities and events related to “A Common Word.” The website includes a page where are able to leave comments.

and for the record.. i havent killed anyone!