Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
7 March 2008
Vatican — The Holy See has formed a joint forum with Muslim scholars to further explore interfaith relations, following a March 4-5 meeting of representatives of the two faiths.
The meeting and formation of the forum was in light of an open letter signed by 138 Muslim scholars and sent to Pope Benedict XVI last year.
A communiqué signed by the heads of the two delegations, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran of the Pontifical Council for Inter-faith Dialogue, and by Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad, stated that, "in order to further develop Catholic-Muslim dialogue, the participants agreed to establish the 'Catholic-Muslim Forum' and to organise the first seminar of the forum in Rome from 4 to 6 November 2008".
That meeting will be attended by 24 religious leaders and scholars from each side. The theme will be "Love of God, Love of Neighbour" and the sub-themes "Theological and Spiritual Foundations" and "Human Dignity and Mutual Respect". The seminar will conclude with a public session on 6 November and the participants will be received by Pope Benedict XVI.
The participants in this week's meeting were, on the Catholic side, Cardinal Tauran, Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata and Msgr. Khaled Akasheh, respectively president, secretary and head officer for Islam of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue; Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot M.C.C.J., president of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies; and Fr. Christian W. Troll S.J., visiting professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
On the Muslim side, the meeting was attended by Sheikh Murad, president of the Muslim Academic Trust, UK; Professor Aref Ali Nayed director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Amman, Jordan; Dr. Ibrahim Kalin of the SETA Foundation, Ankara, Turkey; Imam Yahya Pallavicini, vice-president of CO.RE.IS. (Comunità Religiosa Islamica), Italy; and Sohail Nakhooda, editor-in-chief of "Islamica" Magazine, Amman, Jordan.
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