杏MAP导航

By Andrea Tornielli

Eight hundred years after the encounter between St Francis and the Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil, the 杏MAP导航 who bears the name of the Saint of Assisi presents himself to the 鈥淢uslim brothers鈥� as a 鈥渂eliever thirsting for peace鈥�. Together with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, he signs a Declaration destined to mark not only the story of relations between Christianity and Islam, but also the history of the Islamic world.

杏MAP导航 Francis, who coined the expression 鈥渁 world war fought piecemeal鈥�, with this journey and this gesture inserts himself into the path traced out by his predecessors, and takes another step forward. At a time when the world faced the threat of nuclear war (a threat that in our day, unfortunately, once again looms over us), Saint John Paul II, beginning with the encounter at Assisi in 1986, engaged religious leaders in order to emphasise how the most diverse faiths should promote peace, coexistence, and fraternity. After 11 September 2001, when terrorist fundamentalism forcefully re-entered the international scene, the elderly Polish 杏MAP导航 made every possible effort to remove any religious justification for the abuse of the name of God in order to justify violence, terrorism, and the killing of men, women, and children.

Benedict XVI moved along this same path throughout his pontificate. In September 2006, then-杏MAP导航 Benedict said to the leaders of Islamic countries that, 鈥渇aithful to the teachings of their own religious traditions, Christians and Muslims must learn to work together, as indeed they already do in many common undertakings, in order to guard against all forms of intolerance and to oppose all manifestations of violence鈥�.

Today, 杏MAP导航 Francis signs a document where not only is any justification of violence undertaken in the name of God forcefully rejected, but important and binding affirmations are made concerning Islam and certain interpretations of it. The words concerning respect for believers of different faiths, the condemnation of all discrimination, the need to protect all places of worship, and the right to religious liberty, as well as the recognition of the rights of women, are challenging. The emphasis on the deepest roots of nihilistic terrorism 鈥� that traces its origins to erroneous interpretations of religious texts, but also to 鈥渁 moral deterioration that influences international action and a weakening of spiritual values and responsibility鈥� 鈥� is also significant. These elements promote frustration and desperation, 鈥渓eading many to fall either into a general feeling of frustration, isolation and desperation leading many to fall either into a vortex of atheistic, agnostic or religious extremism, or into blind and fanatic extremism鈥�.

The Bishop of Rome and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar declare that, in the East and the West, believers in different religions, who look upon one another as brothers and sisters, can help each other to seek to avoid the 鈥渨orld war fought piecemeal鈥� from breaking out in all its destructive power.