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The Road Ahead

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The Road Ahead The Road Ahead A Christian–Muslim Dialogue A record of the seminar ‘Building Bridges’ held at Lambeth Palace, 17–18 January 2002 Edited by Michael Ipgrave Church House Publishing Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ ISBN 0 7151 5002 2 GS Misc 672 Published 2002 by Church House Publishing Compilation Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2002 All papers and responses are Copyright © individual authors 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored or transmitted by any means or in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission which should be sought from the Copyright and Contracts Administrator, The Archbishops’ Council, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ. (Tel: 020 7898 1557; Fax: 020 7898 1449; [email protected]). Cover design by Church House Publishing Typeset in Stone Serif 10pt Printed by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire Contents Participants in the Christian–Muslim seminar at Lambeth Palace 17–18 January 2002 v Introducing the seminar vii The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury ix His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan xi The Rt Hon. Tony Blair, The Prime Minister xiv Editorial preface Michael Ipgrave xvii Acknowledgements xviii Building bridges between Christians and Muslims 1 Chapter 1 Christians and Muslims face to face 4 Chapter 2 Learning from history 25 Chapter 3 Communities of faith 48 Chapter 4 Faith and change 69 Chapter 5 Setting the agenda 95 Postscript Ways ahead 119 Glossary 121 Notes 126 Index 136 iii Participants in the Christian–Muslim seminar Lambeth Palace 17–18 January 2002 Mr Raficq Abdulla His Eminence Dr Mustafa Ceri´c Kingston University Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina Professor Leila Ahmed Harvard University Professor Vincent Cornell University of Arkansas Dr Seyed Amir Akrami Organisation for Islamic Culture The Rt Revd Kenneth Cragg and Communication, Tehran Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Oxford Dr Rabiatu Ammah University of Ghana Dr Mohamed El-Awa Egyptian Society for Culture His Holiness Aram I and Dialogue Catholicos of Cilicia Mrs Heba Raouf Ezzat Professor Mehmet Aydin Cairo University University of Izmir The Rt Revd Michael Fitzgerald Dr Zaki Badawi Pontifical Council for Inter- Religious Dialogue, and Bishop The Muslim College, London of Nepte The Revd Professor Michael Professor David Ford Banner Cambridge University King’s College London Professor Yvonne Haddad The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr George Carey Georgetown University Archbishop of Canterbury v List of participants His Royal Highness Prince El Professor Jorgen Nielsen Hassan bin Talal Birmingham University Jordan Dr Farhan Nizami The Rt Revd Josiah Idowu-Fearon Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Bishop of Kaduna Professor Tariq Ramadan The Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave College of Geneva and University Adviser on Inter Faith Relations to of Fribourg the Archbishops’ Council, Church of England Dr Justice Nasim Hasan Shah Chief Justice of Pakistan (retired) Dr Asma Jahangir Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan Dr Mona Siddiqui Glasgow University Mr Hamid Kasiri University of Innsbruck The Most Revd Henri Teissier Archbishop of Algiers Professor David Kerr Edinburgh University The Revd Dr David Thomas Birmingham University Professor Tarif Khalidi Cambridge University Dr Christian Troll SJ Phil.-Theol. Hochschule St Georgen, Dr Philip Lewis Frankfurt am Main University of Bradford Professor Frances Young Professor Tarek Mitri Birmingham University World Council of Churches, Geneva Facilitator Mr Sohail Nakhooda Professor Gillian Stamp Amman The Brunel Institute of Organisational and Social Studies Professor Azim Nanji Institute of Ismaili Studies, London The Rt Revd Dr Michael Nazir-Ali Bishop of Rochester vi Introducing the seminar The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan The Rt Hon. Tony Blair, The Prime Minister The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury On 17 and 18 January 2002 some forty Muslim and Christian scholars gathered in a historic place for a historic purpose. Lambeth Palace, which has been home to Archbishops of Canterbury for over eight hundred years, has seen its fair share of remarkable gatherings since the twelfth century. In my own time as Archbishop there have been several occasions that might qualify for that description – but none more so, I suspect, than the seminar that I was privileged to host for those two days. We came from many different countries and from a variety of traditions and backgrounds, bringing with us at least one thing in common: a strong commitment to deepen the dialogue and to broaden the understanding and cooperation between our two great faiths – Christianity and Islam. Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that this was an entirely new departure. Indeed it is a road more and more travelled in recent years and many of the participants were already experienced wayfarers. However, it also has to be acknowledged that the events of September 11 2001 and their aftermath gave fresh impetus and focus to the shared journey of Christians and Muslims. Those events also highlighted the importance of deepening our dialogue and understanding, not just for the sake of our own faith communities, but also for the well-being and security of the world. There is a widespread sense of urgency about drawing on the rich resources of our faith traditions to challenge those who claim God’s blessing for the evil they do and the hatred they preach. So, although we met as theologians and religious scholars, we did so in the certain knowledge that our work could have resonance and value way beyond our gathering. We had much to discuss over our two days together. We spoke of God and of God’s purposes for the human family; we spoke of the history of our communities, and how they have interacted; we spoke of life in community, the good society and how it is shaped by faith; we reflected on the challenges of the modern world and of the questions which we must face in our dialogue. ix Introducing the seminar And what did we achieve? A simple answer, a deceptively simple one perhaps, is: greater understanding. I believe that in the course of our discussions and informal conversations significant bridges were built, which I hope and pray will facilitate further dialogue in the years to come. I believe that we also went on our way recognizing more fully than before our responsibilities as religious leaders and scholars to help our communities live together in ways which do not suppress our own identities but open us up to the riches which the other offers. We were reminded that we owe it to those communities, as they stand today and as they will be in the future, to do all we can to confront that challenge with all our heart and mind. That will involve trying to help our own faith communities overcome suspicion and apprehension – and yes, at times, hatred and intolerance. We also face the serious challenge that there are many around us who believe that the world would be better off without faith and all its apparent capacity to generate division, hatred and violence. So we must play our part in trying to ensure that the wider world may reap the best – not fear the worst – of what our faiths have to offer. I conclude with words which I addressed to the opening session of the seminar – words which also serve as an invitation to all who read this record of a significant and hopeful gathering of Muslims and Christians: So let us now approach this encounter daring to believe that God has drawn us together. In neither of our faiths is God a subject of idle intellectual curiosity. We are concerned with the living, loving God who brought all things into being and who seeks to bring his creation to its proper fulfilment, with the human family living together in justice and peace. It is this God whose guidance we seek and whose glory we serve. x His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan A few years after the end of the Cold War, Samuel Huntington theorized that the clash of political ideologies that it had represented would be replaced by a ‘clash of civilizations’, in which religious and cultural differences would become the new criteria in distinguishing a dangerous ‘other’. The two sides to the conflict would still be East and West, albeit with this difference: ‘East’ would no longer signify the Soviet Union, but a particular view of Islam – an Islam opposed by a ‘West’ representative less of a triumphant Christendom than of a secular ‘modernity.’ Because of the controversy generated by this thesis – not only in the rarefied realm of academia, but also in the tangible world, in which even academics must live – there has been much talk of the necessity of dialogue between civilizations aimed at addressing past, present and future misunderstandings and preventing Huntington’s ‘clash’. Yet, while I am prepared to offer my unqualified support to the underlying sentiment, I must dispute the notion that the current dialogue is between civilizations. It can only be between cultures. The word ‘civilization’ actually refers to culture; to a society’s cultural achievements in acquiring knowledge and developing technology. It may also be defined as ‘the culture char- acteristic of a particular time or place’. However, although the world was once large enough to foster several civilizations simultaneously, both time and space have been dramatically compressed by the modern revolution in technology. Today, there is only one civilization: one that encompasses all cultures.
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