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Christians and Muslims tell each other they need to face differences
2002-241-7
10/18/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
Muslims and Christians should not play down their religious differences but rather face them and learn to respect them, a leading Orthodox prelate told international political and religious leaders gathered in Geneva October 16.
'Religious identity is stronger than ethnic or cultural identity. It tends to build walls between people. However, we cannot allow these walls to stand,' asserted Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia, who is co-moderator of a three-day international inter-faith conference in Geneva sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Called 'Christians and Muslims in Dialogue and Beyond,' the meeting brought together top religious and political leaders from Muslim-majority countries such as Iran, Libya, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, and Christian-majority countries in Europe and North America with the aim of building mutual trust between the faiths and finding ways to live together.
Dialogue between Muslims and Christians has taken on renewed urgency because more people than ever before are living in communities with members of other religions. Also, fundamentalism is taking root in many places around the world, said Aram I, a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church and moderator of the WCC's main governing body.
'We must not fall into the temptation of understating the existing differences in order to effect an easy compromise,' said the Lebanon-based Orthodox clergyman, pointing to what he called 'significant differences' in the 'moral and social values' of the two religions as well as in their theological teachings.
Christians and Muslims interpret liberty, democracy and human rights differently, he said, with 'concrete implications to our communities living together in one place.' The two religions, he said, also 'perceive the nature and role of religion, civil society and the state quite differently.'
Abdelouahed Belkeziz, secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said, however, that with the spread of modern education and science, 'partial doctrinal differences between Islam and Christianity have started to decline.' 'Consequently, we should be able to narrow our differences, particularly as we all belong to the people of the Scriptures, and are followers of revealed religions which all stem from a common source,' the Saudi-based theologian asserted.
The conference is the latest in a series of inter-faith dialogues that have been held world-wide, in such cities as Assisi, Atlanta, Cairo and Johannesburg, after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
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