Vatican reaches out to Islamic world (well, they've come to the right place)

BBC ^ | 4/29/2002 | David Willey

[a_Turk]

The Vatican has signed an unprecedented agreement with the Government of Turkey to promote religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

The agreement, signed at the Vatican last Friday, was made public only today and was initialled by Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Head of the Papal Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and by Mehmet Yilmaz, the Head of Turkey's Religious Affairs office.

It breaks new ground in the Vatican's current attempts to reach out towards the Islamic world.

It is the first time the Vatican has signed such an agreement with the government of a predominantly Muslim country as apart from with a religious institution.

Connections 'difficult'

The Vatican already has established links with one of the most prestigious universities in the Muslim world, the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo.

However the Pope's advisers on inter-religious dialogue have always found it difficult to establish new connections with the Muslim world which has no central authority and no equivalent to the Pope and his hierarchy of cardinals and bishops.

Therefore, a senior Vatican official explained that as there is no great difference within the Muslim world between religious and governmental authorities, the official partner in this case is a department of the Turkish Government.

The Vatican's agreement with Turkey promotes liberty of religion, of belief and of conscience and aims to eliminate prejudices.

[a_Turk]

That was Helen (eleni, helenist) who hates mw with a passion. Would like you to believe that I am evil.. Nothing will ever change her mind. She's not the kind who would crash planes into buildings, but she wouldn't mind if you did, into one that was Turkish.

[ellery]

I didn't hear anyone say we shouldn't condemn the entire religion of Christian Identity because of a few fanatics, but for some reason they are saying this of Islam

But that's not an apples-to-apples comparison. A truer comparison would be if people started condemning the entire Christian religion because of the Christian Identity whack-jobs. Islam, like any big religion, isn't a monolithic entity -- they have a ton of sects and schisms, and radical, militant Islam is just one of them (one that needs to be utterly destroyed, of course).

[ellery]

There is no similarity. We in the US bombed a Christian country in Serbia in order to help Muslims. We are not tribal, they are

We as a country are not tribal because there is a distinct separation between our polity and our religion. Islam doesn't have that distinction outside a few shining examples such as Turkey. Until Islamic polities undergo serious reform, we will continue to see this tribal behavior. Can you imagine if all the power of both state and religion were concentrated in one, usually very corrupt entity? That kind of power would engender fear and repression that would be pretty hard for an individual to resist.

My point of saying that we are tribal, too, was more of a general observation that all humans tend to want to be part of a group...we're pack animals, at heart:-)

[Michael2001]

But they would have been justified in doing so if mainstream Christians had "condemned" Buford Furrow in a similar manner to the Christian Identity folk. The Christian Identity folk condmned the violence BUT Jews are this and Jews are that. The Islamists condemned 9/11 but said that Americans are this and that.

The only reason that people refuse to condemn Islam in the same way that they condemn Christian Identity, is that Islam has a billion followers and Christian Identity has maybe a couple of hundred.

I will agree that Turkey is a model that seems to work, although they are not nearly as successful as any Western country. But why do they feel a need to repress radical Islam there? We aren't forced to repress Christianity here, because Christianity in it's esssence is compatible with our (and Turkey's way of life); Islam really isn't

[eleni121]

I'm glad you read history even though you are woefully unaware of facts. I suspect however that even if you were aware you would be one who "who goes gently in the night." The genocide that Muslim Turks have inflicted on innocent Christians are not those of the distant past and even if they were it is up to the victims to decide if and when to pursue justice in the matter, not you or the pope or anyone else.

Now as to sharing anything with Muslims...you may get away with sharing a non Muslim point of view with Muslims (I do frequently) in the US but try it anywhere else and it will get you dead faster than you know!

[a_Turk]

Eleni121, you are not only anti-Turk, but anti-semite as well. Here is what you had the audocity to post in an earlier thread:

Jews naturally took advantage of the Turks' offer and participated in crimes against Christians as well.

[a_Turk]

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the worlds Orthodox Christians, holds an Easter Liturgy at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday, May 5, 2002. Some 1,000 pilgrims _ mostly Greeks _ crammed their way into the stone, icon-adorned Cathedral of St. George to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Most Catholics and Protestants -- who follow a different liturgical calendar than Orthodox -- celebrated Easter at the end of March. (AP Photo/Osman Orsal)

[MarMema]

Thanks Turk! We're leaving very shortly for just that very crammed experience ourselves. Thanks for the lovely pic.

[nomoreheroes]

Thanks for the picture. Christ is Risen!