Phone: 972-2-626-6800 FAX: 972-2-628-5764 ADDRESS: Muristan Road P.O. Box 14076 Jerusalem 91140 via Israel
The
Third conference on Coexistence and Peacemaking in Amman, Jordan, sponsored
by the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center, issued a communique
pledging to uphold freedom of religion, respect for holy places, symbols and
writings, and seeking free access for all for holy sites.
For a report, click here.
For the final communique, click
here.
In October of 2007, 138 Muslim scholars issued "A Common Word" addressed to the Pope and other Christian leaders outlining that the heart of Islam and Christianity was love of God and neighbor and citing quotations from the Bible and the Quran illustrating this. For more, click here.
This all follows in the Spirit of the Amman Message, an initiative of King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to raise up the voices of moderation in Islam and speak out against violence and extremism committed in the name of Islam. For more information, click here.
Top religious leaders from Jerusalem - Muslims, Christians and Jews - were invited to Washington to discuss their peace initiative together called the Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land. The group has been working together for more than a year to work together to protect all holy sites, scriptures and symbols. They released a statement this week:
We, believers from three religions, have been placed in this land, Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is our responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one other. Palestinians yearn for the end to occupation and for what they see as their inalienable rights. Israelis long for the day when they can live in personal and national security. Together we must find ways of reaching these goals.ges and Holy Communion. For the full statement, click here.
During the course of the week, members of the council met with members of Congress and the Bush administration to discuss support for their peace initiatives. The group met Nov. 6 with Sen. Joseph Liebermann (I-CT), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), with more than a dozen House members on Nov. 7 and are scheduled to meet Nov. 8 with David Welch, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs. Younan is also scheduled to meet Nov. 8 with Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ).
For information from Religions for Peace, click here.
For ELCA news service bulletin click here.
Christian Science Monitor article on the Council's visit to Washington
In Jerusalem, the heads of local churches, the chief rabbinate and the
chief judge of the Islamic court are in the process of forming a Council of
Religious Institutions in the Holy Land to dialogue about
important issues of faith and life. One of the issues we have been exploring
is whether the root cause of our conflict here is terrorism – the Jewish
position – or occupation – the Muslim and Christian perspective. We have
been examining what our holy writings say about both issues. The goals of
this council are to:
On October 13th 2006, one month to the day after Pope Benedict XVI’s Regensburg address of September 13th 2006, 38 Islamic authorities and scholars from around the world, representing all denominations and schools of thought, joined together to deliver an answer to the Pope in the spirit of open intellectual exchange and mutual understanding. In their Open Letter to the Pope (see english.pdf), for the first time in recent history, Muslim scholars from every branch of Islam spoke with one voice about the true teachings of Islam.
Now, exactly one year after that letter, Muslims have expanded their message. In A Common Word Between Us and You, 138 Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals have unanimously come together for the first time since the days of the Prophet r to declare the common ground between Christianity and Islam. Like the Open Letter, the signatories to this message come from every denomination and school of thought in Islam. Every major Islamic country or region in the world is represented in this message, which is addressed to the leaders of all the world’s churches, and indeed to all Christians everywhere.
The final form of the letter was presented at a conference in September 2007 held under the theme of “Love in the Quran,” by the Royal Academy of The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan, under the Patronage of H.M. King Abdullah II. Indeed, the most fundamental common ground between Islam and Christianity, and the best basis for future dialogue and understanding, is the love of God and the love of the neighbor.
Click here for A Common Word website and copy of writing
For these reasons, I urge governments and religions in the world to commit themselves to initiate dialogues of life. But these must be deep dialogues that address the urgency of the injustice in the world. Too often dialogue becomes an excuse to avoid the tough issues so as not to offend the growing relationship. I am afraid that in the United States and other countries, sometimes those who speak out for justice for the Palestinians are subject to vicious attacks. Thank you to all of those who have had the courage to speak out for justice and to liberate both Palestinians and Israelis from the sin of occupation.
This kind of prophetic dialogue will challenge whomever and whatever threatens peace, justice, freedom, tolerance and human rights in all nations and in all cultures, and it will do so with an urgent passion. A world without values is a world of chaos. A world promoting violence, militarization and consumerism is a world without a soul. A world with shared values of justice, peace and reconciliation promotes pluralism, equality, democracy, tolerance and mutual respect for all religions, cultures and traditions. It is the only world worth giving to our children. It is the least they deserve from us.