Religion is a dangerous topic to write on. Everyone except God seems to be touchy about it. A recent document earlier this month by Muslim clerics to the Pope and other Church figures invites dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Otherwise, the world will be swallowed up in self-destruction, the document points out. The irony is while we prepare for peace, extremists somewhere are preparing to wage holy war or jihad against the very people invited by these clerics to dialogue and all in the name of future peace. The logic being that if there is no opposition at all then peace is inevitable; so what better than to kill all opposition. This is the sad context of this call and invitation for peace. Early in his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI had directly referred to certain aspects of Islam, which he felt were violent. He was, wonder of wonders, in Turkey then. Remember Turkey for all its progressiveness and European aspirations is not truly secular; it is an Islamic nation. The Islamic world reacted in fury and the Pope was forced to explain himself.
Now that things have calmed down and Islam only has Catholicism to contend with if one goes by numbers alone, we have this invitation to peace. There is no one single religion other than Roman Catholicism, which can equal the numbers of Muslims in the world. In the light of this, the missive from the clerics assumes new diplomatic importance. The Church is now in a fix - it can hardly refuse the offer of peace, keeping in mind all the hundreds of Christians living in Islamic countries. On the other hand, there are the forces of Islamic fundamentalism which might perceive any positive response from the Church to the peace offer as being symptomatic of weakness. The National Review reports that Pakistani Christians are being tortured in their country for being perceived as weak. The invitation of Jesus to turn the other cheek is seen by fundamental Islamic jehadis as being very cowardly.
Also Church theologians will have a hard time in engaging with Islam for as the great, blind Latin American writer Borges had long ago pointed out; Islam considers the Holy Quran as an extension of God’s very being, not merely the Word of God. Studying the history of the Catholic Church’s encounter with other religions, we find that there are two levels at which she meets other religions. One is the level of the missionary who builds various institutions in an alien land. The missionary, in other words, creates the physical space for dialogue. The other level is at the level of ideas. The Church sets in motion a process, which she terms as inculturation; her philosophers and intelligentsia figure out ways how God speaks in that other faith. But the obstacles with Islam are many; Islamic countries will hardly allow the missionary to work, so ideas of peace will remain just ideas and there will be possible very little feedback of the peace-process from the ground level. And Catholic scholars will be under the threats of fatwas or Islamic clerical injunctions if they treat the Quran as anything other than what Islam considers it to be. Jesuit Fathers working in the Holy Land and in Islamic countries have reported these difficulties.
Islam as a lived religion shows remarkable diversity. There is the liberal group represented by these 138 clerics who prepared this peace document and there is the militant Islam. The latter went to the extent of tyranny in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime still haunts the European psyche. So, even if the clerical document be accepted, one wonders what is to be done about this insurgent Islam. Will it have any effect at all on the world? Of course, one area where this document may have immense influence is the Middle East. The Pope’s response to the document will have a make or break effect on the peace process there. Lastly, one wonders why the document is only addressed to Christians. What about the Hindus, Buddhists and so many other faiths in the world? If the answer lies in only numbers then the whole effort is suspect. It then smacks of a hidden fear of the numerous and a callous disregard for the religious minorities of the world. The international community can only hope that this document hides no such intention and mirrors the genuine Pax Domini (Peace of God, which even today monks say to each other in Christian abbeys) which echoes through the Western world from the time of St. Benedict, the father of Christian monasticism.
Image: Middle East Online
Via: The National Review
