Muslim leaders call for peace with Christians

[No Limit]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1162787420071011?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 130 Muslim scholars from around the globe called on Thursday for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying "the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake".

In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars said finding common ground between the world's biggest faiths was not simply a matter for polite dialogue between religious leaders.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants...Our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake," they wrote, adding that Islam and Christianity already agreed that love of God and neighbor were the two most important commandments of their faiths.....Such a joint letter is unprecedented in Islam, which has no central authority that speaks on behalf of all worshippers.

The list of signatories includes senior figures throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. They represent Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi schools of Islam.

Among them were the grand muftis of Egypt, Palestine, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Bosnia and Russia and many imams and scholars. War-torn Iraq was represented by both Shi'ites and Sunnis. ....

....

with Benedict in Istanbul's Blue Mosque last year, was also on the list, as was the popular Egyptian television preacher Amr Khaled.

....

Aref Ali Nayed, one of the signatories and a senior adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Program at Cambridge University in Britain, said the signatories represented the "99.9 percent of Muslims" who follow mainstream schools and oppose extremism.

Obviously you wont get everyone to agree but this is a great step in the right direction. And I suspect you wont hear anything about this in the "main stream media".

 

[CptStern]

O RLY?

 

[Lt. Drebin]

Now, my question is...have the same 130 publically condemned and blasted the extremist nut-bags in their religion??? Not that it would terribly matter....

 

[Lt. Drebin]

O RLY?

Too funny...lol.

 

[Tyguy]

I mean, its a good idea. It's not going to change anything though. Maybe if the nutjobs (Bush, Amadenajad)were exacting these changes then it might be a practical movement.

 

[No Limit]

Now, my question is...have the same 130 publically condemned and blasted the extremist nut-bags in their religion??? Not that it would terribly matter....

From the excerpts I read they did:

http://www.islamicamagazine.com/issue18/openletter18_lowres.pdf

But I havent read the entire letter so I dont know the context. They talk about there being no holy war in their religion on page 3 of the PDF (27 of magazine). I'll try to read the entire thing later. They condamned all attacks that took place after the pope called their religion evil.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

It's a good idea, but both these religions can't even estabilish peace within their own groups, let alone amoung each other.

 

[kirovman]

Unfortunately I do not believe in the same God as them, I believe in the reanimated mummified Captain Kirk.

I guess it's sort of a step in the right direction, but it does basically say if you don't worship the same God as us you're heathen scum.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

I believe in the reanimated mummified Captain Kirk.

I came. And with belief.

 

[Mr Stabby]

Everyone wants peace, on their own terms.

 

[jverne]

I came. And with belief.

god bless your semen :O

 

[Nemesis6]

Stabby said it. I've heard this story before - "We want peace." But the thing to realize when reading stuff like this is that in order to be able to see if they're telling the truth, see who they're associated with and who their members are. Another interesting observation - They also say that Islam means "peace". It doesn't. And now they want "peace" with the Christians. Or, rather, they want the Christians to "peace".

Big hint: Islam means "submission".

By the way: Just noticed something - One of the signatories is Palestinian. I bet he's laughing his ass off knowing that most people don't know what happened a few days ago in Gaza. Or maybe he's apalled by it, but then again, who knows? This is pretty much useless: Without their names, this means nothing.

 

[jverne]

Stabby said it. I've heard this story before - "We want peace." But the thing to realize when reading stuff like this is that in order to be able to see if they're telling the truth, see who they're associated with and who their members are. Another interesting observation - They also say that Islam means "peace". It doesn't. And now they want "peace" with the Christians. Or, rather, they want the Christians to "peace".

Big hint: Islam means "submission".

By the way: Just noticed something - One of the signatories is Palestinian. I bet he's laughing his ass off knowing that most people don't know what happened a few days ago in Gaza. Or maybe he's apalled by it, but then again, who knows? This is pretty much useless: Without their names, this means nothing.

what happened?

 

[No Limit]

Stabby said it. I've heard this story before - "We want peace." But the thing to realize when reading stuff like this is that in order to be able to see if they're telling the truth, see who they're associated with and who their members are. Another interesting observation - They also say that Islam means "peace". It doesn't. And now they want "peace" with the Christians. Or, rather, they want the Christians to "peace".

Big hint: Islam means "submission".

By the way: Just noticed something - One of the signatories is Palestinian. I bet he's laughing his ass off knowing that most people don't know what happened a few days ago in Gaza. Or maybe he's apalled by it, but then again, who knows? This is pretty much useless: Without their names, this means nothing.

Nothing they do would make you happy, huh? Did you read the entire letter? From the excerpts I read they renounced violance. And these aren't just some random off the street muslims, they are leaders in their communities.

 

[CptStern]

trying to decipher the meaning behind nemesis' posts is like trying to row a row boat with only one oar: you go in circles and you never get anywhere ...personally I'd throw him an anchor

 

[Nemesis6]

Nothing they do would make you happy, huh? Did you read the entire letter? From the excerpts I read they renounced violance. And these aren't just some random off the street muslims, they are leaders in their communities.

I've learned that you can't take people at face value when it comes to Islam. My concern is that when you look behind the pretty words, you'll find that they later elaborate to their followers that, in one instance for example, that what they REALLY meant was <insert the usual Islamist rhetoric> here. Happened on many occasions in the past and that's why I'm skeptical now.

Let me give you one example I can remember: Al Muhajiroun said that they condemned terror or violence in any form whatsoever, but behind the scenes they praised the 9/11 hijackers as the "Magnificant 19", and quite a few other things that we've learned about only after their demise, but at the time, no reason for people not to take their words at face value, right?

And ultimately, we're back at square one: Who are these people and what have they done in the past?