Christians and Muslims agree on Peace and Justice principles
Earlier in June, two dozen Roman Catholic and Muslim scholars met in Rome to discuss the theme “Christians and Muslims as witnesses of the God of Justice, of Peace and of Compassion in a World suffering from Violence.” Pope Benedict XVI personally visited the meeting to highlight its significance. While such interreligious dialogues seem groundbreaking these days, this meeting was actually the 14th annual meeting between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the The Islamic-Catholic liaison Committee.
Rev. Dr. Frederic Ntedika Mvumbi, OP, one of my Dominican brothers from the Congo who teaches Islam in a Catholic seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, was fortunate enough to be one of the participants, and sent a personal report. In it he said that “a common understanding of these issues was found, though with difficulty, and an appeal was made to commit ourselves to it:”
- The inherent dignity of each human being, from which stem universal rights and duties, should be reaffirmed.
- Justice is a priority in our world. Justice requires, beyond the implementation of the existing legal framework and provisions, respect for the fundamental needs of individuals and people through love and solidarity. There can be no true and lasting pace without justice.
- Peace is a gift from God. It demands great commitment of all human beings, particularly believers who are called to be witnesses of God’s peace in a world of multiple forms of violence.
- Christians and Muslims recognize God as Compassionate and therefore are called to show compassion in treating every person, especially the needy and the weak.
- We believe that religions, if lived authentically, can effectively promote brotherhood and harmony of the human dignity.
At first glance, these assertions seem rather safe, but if we look a bit closer, they represent a real step forward in Christians’ ability to work together with Muslims for the sake of creating a better, more peaceful world. For instance, in number 1. To have religious leaders agree that universal rights and duties are based on the inherent dignity of every human person makes it much easier to find common ground about what these rights and duties might be compared to basing them on the Bible or the Qur’an. While it does not necessarily affirm the specific rights found in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it does affirm the validity and basis for such a universal document.
More importantly, numbers 3 and 5 combine to point the way forward in forging a better world. If peace is a gift from God, then it cannot be achieved through merely “secular” principles. Thus, religions are an essential part of the solution to wars and injustice in the world. The document does not specify whether all religions promote peace, but we can certainly assume that the list includes Christianity and Islam. Thus, contrary to what we might assume hearing American political rhetoric and news stories, Islam is proclaimed as a religion of peace by these Roman Catholic leaders. What the world needs is for Muslims to be more faithful to their religion, not less.
I can affirm this as true. Can you?
Scott Steinkerchner in charge of the worldwide internet development efforts of his religious congregation, the Dominicans, and is an adjunct professor of interreligious theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. He has a Ph.D. in theology from Boston College with a specialization in inter-religious dialogue, and is a Catholic priest. 
Point #2: Justice is defined completely different between the two religions. Who’s definition are we supposed to be using?
Point #4: The Islam God and the Christian God differ on compassion as well.
As is the case with every religion that is based on a sacred text, interpretation is the key. It’s not what it says, it’s what you THINK it says…
These interfaith dialougues are a good idea in principle, but the reality of the faiths is that there are differences. Even though most of them are minor it is enough to act as a canyon between them and that is never going to change.