Islam – Page 2 – Communio

Father Samir Khalil Samir speaks on Egyptian reform today

Egyptian Jesuit Father Samir Khalil Samir is a Professor
at Rome’s Pontifical Oriental Institute and scholar on Islam spoke to Emer
McCarthy, an interviewer at Vatican Radio who asked by if a Western concept of political
democracy is adequate to Egypt and other Arab nations. Father Samir saidit is
“applicable but not yet practicable.”

He further said, “What we need first of
all is justice, equality, social reform because the gap between rich and poor
is far too wide and this is the real cause of the Islamic fundamentalist
movement. We need change, the Arab world must change. We need alternate parties
but in our countries there is nothing”.

Plus, it was advanced that “If you have
authoritarian regimes they systematically destroy all the leaderships so only
people who are in agreement with the current system are in power”. In the case
of Egypt “Mubarack nominated his second in command, Omar Suleiman who is a good
diplomat a military officer. But the question is this good for the country?”.

For more on the story, read it here…

Dialogue frozen between the Vatican & Islamic University of Al-Azhar

Controversies never end between the Holy See and Islam. Dialogue between a Vatican group and an Egyptian one is now suspended in a surprising move. From what I can tell, some individuals are easily swayed by sentiment and the immediacy of political power and not by true faith and reason. Not to mention the poor translations of speeches given by the Pope. This is not a new issue and it is a matter of concern. I am inclined to say that the tensions originate not in Pope Benedict’s statements on Islam and Christianity, religious freedom and reciprocity, and faith and reason, but the tensions in Egypt (and other Islamic countries) over secularizing tendencies of some government leaders and the more conservative religious types. Islam, like Christianity, is in a precarious situation with the faith not being able to fruitfully interact in society. They are facing what 1968 was for the West. Islam is losing ground with many people, though it’s hard to prove this on occasion. On the other hand, I am not convinced, from what I read coming from certain religious leaders in Islam, that broadening reason by faith is a priority. They say one thing and do something opposite. Many of them can’t (won’t?) distinguish secularity from secularism. Certainly conflicting statements and reversing previously held “positions” is confusing and leading to heightened anxieties.

Now the Islamic University of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s most prestigious institution of higher learning, is accusing Pope Benedict with propagating a negative attitudes toward Islam and therefore freezing dialogue. Those who hold that idea aren’t reading what the Pope has said. And our consistent approach is openness to dialogue. What does that tell you? And who, really, does the dialogue benefit? The answer: the West according to some Muslims.

This statement comes a month before the meeting of the Joint Committee for Dialogue of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Permanent Committee of Al-Azhar for Dialogue among the Monotheistic Religions.

AsiaNews.it provided this story today. I highly recommend it.

Policeman shoots 4 Christians in Egypt, shouting Allah is great

The online magazine Catholic Culture (here below) carried this story today, which ran yesterday in the AFP, about a Muslim policeman killing Christian women when tensions are already running following the killing of Christians in a church. More sadness for humanity. It is also incredibly sad that the Egyptian Ambassador to the Holy See has stated that the view that Christians are not persecuted. Can you believe it??? The Ambassador’s head is in the sand.

Less than two
weeks after a church bombing in Alexandria left 21 Coptic Christians dead, an
off-duty policeman shot four Christians on a train, killing a 71-year-old man.
A fifth person was also wounded.

Continue reading Policeman shoots 4 Christians in Egypt, shouting Allah is great

Pope Benedict XVI and the Way to Peace

These early days of 2011 are shaping up to be an interfaith challenge with all sorts of messages, clarifications and critiques of current events between Christians and Muslims. The latest, noted here, is a statement given by the Pope’s ambassador, the Apostolic Nunccio to Egypt, Archbishop Michael L. Fiztgerald, M. Afr. The Nuncio,73, is a former head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The statement was given in response to a request of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate clarifying the Pope’s January 2nd statement against the attacks against the Coptic faithful.

The statement of His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI with regard to the tragic attack on the Church of
the Saints in Alexandria has met with some criticism. It may therefore be
helpful to give an account of what the Pope actually said and of his recent
teaching on the way to peace.

Continue reading Pope Benedict XVI and the Way to Peace

Melkite Patriarch calls for unified talk & acting to build better future

A friend sent me this letter of His Beatitude, Patriarch Gregory III addressing the killing and violence inflicted on the Syrian Christian community on October 31 (there’s discrepancy in the letter). His Beatitude is known for straight-talking and this letter indicates that sensibility. Let’s pray for peace in all of our hearts and minds as we pray for our enemies.

Rabweh, 8 November 2010

Christian bloodbath in the Cathedral
of Our Lady of Deliverance, Baghdad

The carnage which took place on Sunday,
November 1, 2010 in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of our Lady of Deliverance in
Baghdad was of an unprecedented cruelty and barbarity. It was an attack capable
of undermining the good will of genuine bridge-builders between cultures, brave
heroes of inter-religious dialogue, as well as the optimism of the Special
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East.

I offer my sincere
condolences and the assurance of my prayers and those of our Church to His Beatitude
Patriarch Ignace-Joseph III (Younan), to His Eminence Cardinal Emmanuel III
(Delly) and to all those who are broken-hearted at this crime.

We know that
this criminal act is not the work of authentic Islam, and cannot be based on
it. Despite that, we hold Muslims in Iraq and in all Arab countries to be
responsible for Christian security, since they have power, and control the army
and police force.

We urge Arab countries to study the reality of fundamentalist
terrorism and the trends that feed on it. This is a global Islamic
responsibility, because showing Islam under that guise is a disfigurement of
authentic Islam. The real enemies of Islam and Muslims are neither
“Islamophobia” nor “Christian Europe,” but rather these fundamentalist organisations
and trends.

They are also the enemies of Christianity and of every Christian
and Muslim social and human value, whether Arab or not.

Christians are
peaceable, patriotic, loyal, faithful to their homeland and countries, tolerant
and naturally inclined to forgiveness. But they are not passive, cowardly,
timid, any more than they are inclined to be humiliated. They are not sheep,
designed to be slaughtered by fundamentalists. Christians are builders of
values, nations and cultures, including Islamic culture itself.

If Muslims do
nothing to safeguard this creative strain represented by Arab Christians in
Iraq and throughout the Middle East, the prosperity and drive of Islamic
culture will be in danger of collapse, and Muslims will then be their own worst
enemies, enemies of their faith and of their countries.

Dear Muslim and
Christian Arab brothers, let us adopt a unifying way of talking and act
together to build a better future for all our children and compatriots!

Gregorios
III

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

Radical, Political Islamic leaders declare: “Iraq’s Christians are legitimate targets & now face the “doors of destruction”

There’s no doubt that Christians in Iraq are facing the significant trails of their lifetime. These are our brothers and sisters. Some call it a jihad against the Christian minority and others say this is an example of a more globalized efforts to squeeze out Christianity in the Middle East. The horrific attack is religiously motivated driving the Christians from the region, an ethnic cleansing. Multiple religious groups in Iraq create diversity, it creates democratic processes, no matter the size of the community.

The Islamists as a group is small, perhaps not more than 5% but they have money and are mobilized. But where is the outrage of the Islamic leaders of the reasonable sort speaking against these attacks? Barely is the media reportiing on last Sunday’s events.

Vatican Radio reported that “The victims of Sunday’s massacre in Our Lady of Salvation Church Baghdad were laid to rest Tuesday. A telegram from Pope Benedict to the leader of the Syro-Catholic Church in the Iraqi capital, Archbishop Athanase Matti Shaba Matoka, was read out to mourners during the funeral service. The Pope said ‘deeply moved by the violent death of so many faithful and their priests, Tha’ir Saad and Boutros Wasim, I wish, during the sacred funeral rite, to share spiritually in this occasion and pray that these our brothers and sisters are welcomed by the mercy of Christ into the Father’s House.for years this country has been suffering untold hardships and even Christians have become the subject of brutal attacks that, in total disregard of life – an inviolable gift from God – want to undermine confidence and peace. I renew my call that the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters may be the seed of peace and true rebirth, and that those who care about reconciliation, solidarity and fraternal coexistence, find the strength and motivation to do good.'”

Additionally, Asia News reported, “The so-called ‘War Department’ of the ‘Islamic State of Iraq’ (ISI) al-Qaeda in Iraq issued a statement on the Web to announce that the passing of the deadline of its ‘ultimatum’ to the Egyptian Coptic Church to release two Egyptian women, Camilia Cheh and Wafa Constantine, wives of Coptic priests, whom according to the terrorists are detained against their will in a convent after converting to Islam. Their conversion has been denied by all the Islamic religious authorities in Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood have harshly attacked the authors of the massacre in Baghdad. Al-Qaeda, however, confirms that all Christians and their churches have become “legitimate targets” of the terrorist group and are therefore are in danger. The message issued today by the Iraqi cell of al-Qaeda also makes explicit reference to the Vatican.”

Further, “While confirming its desire to attack the Christians, the terrorists say they want to give one more chance to the Catholics of the Church of Rome. They claim that ‘the War Office of the Islamic State of Iraq’ announced that starting today all the churches and Christian organizations and their leaders are a legitimate target for mujahedeen. These politicians and their bosses in the Vatican should know that the sword will not fall on the heads of their followers if they proclaim their innocence, and distance themselves from what has been done by the Egyptian Church. Al-Qaeda calls on Catholics to ‘send a clear signal to the mujahedeen of their effort to put pressure on the Egyptian Church in order to obtain the release of two women, their prisoners.'”

Martin Chulov of the Guardian in Britain, wrote “Resurgent al-Qaida threatens Christians in Iraq with ‘destruction”: “Al-Qaida in Iraq has threatened more attacks on Iraq’s Christians, claiming that they are legitimate targets who now face the ‘doors of destruction.’ The warning, published today on militant websites, came three days after gunmen from an al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, raided one of Baghdad’s main cathedrals during Sunday mass. More than 50 people were killed and dozens were wounded when Iraqi forces stormed the church in an attempt to lift the four-hour siege. In its statement, ISI described the pope as ‘the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican’ and warned that Christians would be ‘extirpated and dispersed’ from Iraq. ‘All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the muhajideen wherever they can reach them… We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood.'”

Muslim man dances on altar

On October 11, a Muslim managed to get up and dance on
the altar of the Florence’s Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the famed cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Florence.

Apparently, the man brought his ghetto blaster to the cathedral and played Michael Jackson’s song, “Bad.”

Here are the pictures
of this unbelievable event. The perpetrator does not speak Italian, but it’s reported that he prayed several time in Arabic.

Interesting…I am not sure what to make of this act of disrespect. Surely this man was out of his mind, right? Is this the result of the multiculturalism that the liberal West promotes and condones as a matter of religious freedom? What would Whoopi Goldberg say about this event? Could she bring herself to re-think her objections to Bill O’Reilly’s ideas the day when she stormed off the stage on live TV?

Where is the Christian protest? Why are the Catholics of Florence so quiet about this act of insensitivity??? Please tell me!

Communion and Liberation on “Islamophobia and Mother Teresa”

The following flyer is being distributed by the lay ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation this weekend as a humble attempt to understand, in a serious way, what the Ground Zero-Mosque building proposal means in light of our saying we believe that Jesus Christ makes a difference in the way we live and see reality around us, and how He is truly present among us. If we really believe that Christ abides with us, then how do you (we) evaluate value of the current Christian-Muslim-unbeliever tensions? Do we, as believers, assess reality according to the way everyone else does, or do we Christians assess reality in a new way, in the way Christ sees reality?

The proposed construction of an Islamic center and mosque at
Ground Zero has resulted in the outrage of many Americans and the recent public
discussion about “Islamophobia” in America. These events provoke us to affirm
the following:

1. We notice a growing tendency to manipulate circumstances to
serve as a pretext to create a public furor that demands people make a choice
between one of two pre -packaged, ideological positions. We refuse to engage in
a debate about whether or not to build a mosque at Ground Zero. The reality of
Islam in America brings up questions that go much deeper than that of the
construction of one mosque.
Indeed, one critical and open question is how contemporary American
culture comes to grips with the human person’s religious sense.

2. Many of
those among the cultural elite, as well as many who hold the levers of power in
our nation, have abandoned the religious tradition that informed the lives of
the vast majority of their ancestors: Christianity. They have reduced it to a
moral code or a vague myth, linked to a man dead for more than 2,000 years. Instead,
they have embraced a “scientific” outlook on human life. But science provides
no answer to those questions that continuously gnaw at the human heart, such as
the problem of justice, the meaning of human life, or the problems of suffering
and evil. In fact, science tends to stifle them. Hence, contemporary American culture finds itself weak and
tremendously uncertain about any response to universal human inquiries and
longings.

3. Just over two weeks ago, we marked the 100th anniversary of Mother
Teresa of Calcutta’s birth. One who looks at her sees a resplendent human
person, overflowing with love for everyone, especially strangers of different
religions. Her humanity touched all: religious and atheist; Muslim and Hindu;
rich and poor. Mother Teresa’s life invites anyone who seeks truth to open his
or her heart and mind and take a fresh look at Christianity.

4. For serious
Christians, the challenge of Islam, the large-scale abandonment of
Christianity, the emptiness of the dominant culture, and the witness of Mother
Teresa signal the urgent need for conversion. Pope Benedict XVI recently said
that “conversion…is not a mere moral decision that rectifies our conduct
in life, but rather a choice of faith that wholly involves us in close
communion with Jesus as a real and living Person.” The Pope brings us face to face with the defining difference
between Christianity and Islam: one religion bases its response to the human
person’s religious sense upon a message delivered 1,400 years ago, while the
other offers the experience of a Man who died but is alive and present with us
today. As Fr. Juliàn Carròn,
President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, recently affirmed:
Jesus’ message and even all the miracles He performed were not enough to
overcome the sadness of His disciples on the road to Emmaus –only His risen
presence could ignite their hearts once again.

5. We are not Islamophobic, nor
do we fear our post-modern world.
On the contrary, we invite all to look at Mother Teresa and at the Man
to whom she gave her life. In His
Person, present with us today, all can find the Truth that alone will deliver
the freedom America promises.

Communion and Liberation

September 11, 2010

Notes

Benedict XVI, General Audience,
Paul VI Audience Hall, Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100217_en.html)

cfr. Luke 24: 13-35

Here’s the text for easy printing: CL Sept 11, 2010 Flyer.pdf

Islam stagnant & the West has alzheimer’s

An astute observer of religion has to pay attention to the current situation of Christianity and Islam, in all its forms. One person to listen to is Jesuit Father Samir Khalil Samir, a Cairo born Islamic scholar and Catholic theologian teaching at Saint Joseph’s University, Beruit; Father Samir is well-published and well-sought after for counsel on Christian-Muslim matters.

Today at Asia News, Father Samir has a keenly written article on Islam and Christianity as we know it right now. Really, you need to read this article.

You may also be interested in a primer on the basics of Christian and Islamic thought, What Catholics Need to Know About Islam by Sandra T. Keating be helpful to you.

Magdi Cristiano Allam speaks of his conversion to Christ

Given that today’s feast is of a saint who brought thousands to Christ, I thought reprinting a recent article about a rather high profile baptism this past year. It is no small thing that a Muslim accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and lives to tell about it. Magdi Allam’s story is unique.

Converted Muslim Tells Story Behind Papal Baptism

By Luca Marcolivio

Zenit.org

December 1, 2008

The high-profile baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam at the Easter Vigil ceremony presided over last year by Benedict XVI has a story behind it. According to Allam himself, his conversion journey was possible because of great Christian witnesses.

One of the directors of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, he spoke about his conversion and the experiences that led to it when he met with university students of Rome last week to tell the story of his path to Catholicism.

Starting from the Easter Vigil of 2008 — which Allam called the “most beautiful day of my life” — when he received baptism from Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Italian-Egyptian journalist spoke of his life journey and the reflections that brought him to embrace “a new life in Christ and a new spiritual itinerary.”

“This journey,” he recalled, “began apparently by chance, [but] in truth was providential. Since age four, I had the chance to attend Italian Catholic schools in Egypt. I was first a student of the Comboni religious missionaries, and later, starting with fifth grade, of the Salesians.

“I thus received an education that transmitted to me healthy values and I appreciated the beauty, truth, goodness and rationality of the Christian faith,” in which “the person is not a means, but a starting point and an arriving point.”

“Thanks to Christianity,” he said, “I understood that truth is the other side of liberty: They are an indissoluble binomial. The phrase, ‘The truth will make you free’ is a principle that you young people should always keep in mind, especially today when, scorning the truth, freedom is relinquished.”

The journalist continued: “My conversion was possible thanks to the presence of great witnesses of faith, first of all, His Holiness Benedict XVI. One who is not convinced of his own faith — often it’s because he has not found in it believable witnesses of this great gift.

“The second indissoluble binomial in Christianity is without a doubt that of faith and reason. This second element is capable of giving substance to our humanity, the sacredness of life, respect for human dignity and the freedom of religious choice.”

The journalist affirmed that the Holy Father’s 2006 speech in Regensburg — which caused uproar within the Muslim community — was for him a reason to reflect.

Allam said: “An event, before my conversion, made me think more than other events: the Pope’s discourse in Regensburg. On that occasion, citing the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, he affirmed something that the Muslims themselves have never denied: that Islam spreads the faith above all with the sword.”

He added: “There is a greater and more subliminal danger than the terrorism of ‘cut-throats.’ It is the terrorism of the ‘cut-tongues,’ that is, the fear of affirming and divulging our faith and our civilization, and it brings us to auto-censorship and to deny our values, putting everything and the contrary to everything on the same plane: We think of the Shariah applied even in England.

“The one called ‘a great one,’ that is, to always give to the other what he wants, is exactly the opposite of the common good, perfectly indicated by Jesus: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ That evangelical precept confirms for us that we cannot want good for the rest if we do not first love ourselves. The same is true for our civilization.

“Contrary to that principle is indifference and multiculturalism that, without any identity, pretends to give all kinds of rights to everyone. A result of multiculturalism was the imposition of social solidity and the development of ghettos and ethnic groups in perpetual conflict with indigenous populations.”

The journalist recounted: “This led me to consider the third great binomial of Christian civilization: that regarding rules and values, a key for a possible ethical rescue of modern Europe. The old world, nevertheless, is a colossus of materiality with feet of clay. Materialism is a globalized phenomenon, unlike faith, which is not.”

Responding to a question about a possible compatibility between faith and reason in Islam, Allam contended that “unlike Christianity, the religion of God incarnate in man,” Islam is made concrete in a sacred text that, “being one with God, is not interpretable.”

“The very acts of Mohammed, documented by history, and which the Muslim faithful themselves do not deny, testify to massacres and exterminations perpetrated by the prophet. Therefore, the Quran is incompatible with fundamental human rights and non-negotiable values. In the past, I tried to make myself the spokesman of an Islam moderate in itself.”

Regarding interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims, Allam said that it is possible only “if we are authentically Christian in love, including toward Muslims. If we make dialogue relative, we will instigate our questioners to see us as infidels, and therefore as land to be conquered.”

The journalist emphasized for the students the importance of an education that goes back to transmitting “an ethical conception of life, with values and rules at the center of everything.” A negation of such principles, he contended, “is wild capitalism, which, paradoxically, has its maximum development in communist China.”

“We cannot conceive of the person in ‘business’ terms,” he concluded, “and we have to find rules of co-existence that are not founded on materialism. We should redefine our society based on being and not on having.”