Salmiya

The critical remarks on Islam made by Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his Regensburg lecture on September 12, 2006 seem to lead eventually to dialogue. The Pope received last week a delegation of Shi’a clerics from the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Vatican. The inter-religious study theme tied in with the main topic of Benedict’s lecture, Faith and Reason in Christianity and Islam. The delegates agreed upon the following: 1. "Faith and reason are both gifts of God to mankind." 2. "Faith and reason do not contradict each other, but faith might in some cases be above reason, but never against it." 3. "Faith and reason are intrinsically non-violent. Neither reason nor faith should be used for violence; unfortunately, both of them have been sometimes misused to perpetrate violence. In any case, these events cannot question either reason or faith." 4. "Both sides agreed to further co-operate in order to promote genuine religiosity, in particular s...

It took 18 months after his controversially perceived lecture at Regensburg University for coming to the conclusion that he has to meet the clerical representatives of Islam for further clarifications. In an open letter signed by 38 Muslim scholars and leaders the Holy Father had been invited for a friendly dialogue of the two major monotheistic faiths some time ago. Now he wants to talk with them. Pope Benedict XVI, who had travelled to Istanbul last year (Byzantium, as he still called it) and there had visited the Blue Mosque, was very reluctant in apologizing for his not really helpful quotation of a 14th Century Byzantine Emperor who had criticized Islam and had called it violent and irrational. It must be remembered that in what is called the Middle Ages in the West, a dark and inhumane era when plague and other epidemics were depopulating much of Europe, it was Islam which had preserved the Greek philosophers’ knowledge. The countries in the Middle East and beyond then represen...