Pope Highlights Bond With Muslims
September 23, 2011 Pope Benedict has met with German Muslim leaders and called for Christianity and Islam to grow together in “dialogue and mutual esteem.” He met with several Muslim leaders in Berlin Friday, on the second day of his trip to Germany. The pope stressed the importance of religion in modern society and said he believes there can be a “fruitful collaboration” between Christians and Muslims. On Thursday, Pope Benedict celebrated an open air mass before 70,000 Catholics at Berlin’s historic Olympic Stadium. Earlier in the day, at the start of his first state visit to his native country, the pope addressed the German parliament. He urged politicians not to sacrifice ethics for power, citing Nazi excesses...
Norway Muslims share nation’s grief and hope for unity...
By Mohammed Abbas and Aasa Christine Stoltz OSLO | Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:22pm EDT (Reuters) – As central Oslo reeled from Norway’s worst massacre in modern history, a blond man in the grieving crowd asked Iraqi-born Iman al-Kofi, wearing a headscarf, for a hug. Kofi, who had a friend in intensive care with three bullet wounds and had learned that at least one other friend of Iraqi origin had been killed in Friday’s massacre by an anti-Islamic extremist, obliged, and the man walked back into the crowd without another word. Kofi, 19, and other Muslim immigrants say they would have been treated very differently had the perpetrator of one of the country’s most heinous...
Pope to Meet Jews, Muslims on German visit...
VATICAN CITY | Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:28am EDT (Reuters) – Pope Benedict will meet Jews and Muslims on his visit to his German homeland in September, the Vatican said on Wednesday. The visit, which will take him to Berlin, Erfurt, Etzelsbach, Lahr and Freiburg im Breisgau, will be Benedict’s third trip home since becoming pope in 2005. A Vatican program for the September 22-25 trip showed the pope will meet members of the Jewish community on the first day and Muslims on the second day. While meetings with the Jewish community are common on papal trips, when a pope meets the community in Germany the event takes on greater significance because of the...
Egyptian Islamist Calls for Tolerance of Coptic Christians...
May 11, 2011 Elizabeth Arrott | Cairo Violence between Egypt’s Coptic Christians and conservative Muslims has led to calls for tolerance from some unlikely sources. The allegiance of the men gathered outside a mosque in central Assyut is clear. But the man addressing the rally implores them to embrace those of other religions. Aboud el-Zomour warns against interfaith violence that just days before in Cairo left 12 people dead. An ex-army officer, former leader of Islamic Jihad, and prisoner for nearly 30 years for his role in killing the perceived infidel President Anwar Sadat, al-Zomour now presents himself as a messenger of peace. He tells the crowd his group has “turned the page of violence, forever and with...
Innovative Program Trains Pastors, Imams, Rabbis Together...
February 25, 2011 Monaliza Noormohammadi | Claremont, California There’s an ambitious effort under way, to change the way religious leaders in the United States are educated. It’s a new theological program which plans to train Muslim, Jewish, and Christian clergy together. In one southern California classroom, scholars and students from the three major Abrahamic faiths – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – are examining sacred texts, focusing on their spiritual commonalities. This course on interreligious leadership is part of a new graduate program taking form at the Claremont School of Theology — an initiative that would train future pastors, rabbis and imams side-by-side, as they work toward their theological degrees. “We think it’s the world’s first shared curriculum in...
US Muslim Leaders Call for Week of Dialogue With Other Faiths...
September 20, 2010 Carolyn Weaver | New York U.S. Muslim groups are calling for a nationwide week of “dialogue” in response to the controversy over the proposed Islamic cultural center near the former World Trade Center site, known as Ground Zero. Speaking outside the proposed Islamic Center building site near Ground Zero, Muslim leaders said freedom of religion is for everyone in America. They called for a “National Week of Dialogue” to combat ignorance and bigotry that they said motivates opposition to mosques and Muslim schools in several other places in the United States. Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it is unfair to associate the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero with the...
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