Vatican and Muslims to establish permanent dialogue ( Locked) (29)

Vatican and Muslims to establish permanent dialogue

By Philip Pullella 2 hours, 54 minutes ago

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican and Muslim leaders agreed on

Wednesday to establish a permanent official dialogue to improve often

difficult relations and heal wounds still open from a controversial

papal speech in 2006.


A joint statement said the first meeting of "The Catholic-Muslim Forum"

will take place on November 4-6 in Rome with 24 religious leaders and

scholars from each side.

Pope Benedict will address the group, the statement said.

The announcement came after a two-day meeting at the Vatican with five

representatives of Muslims who had signed an unprecedented appeal to

the Pope to begin a dialogue.

"We emerged with a permanent structure that will ensure that the

Catholic-Muslim engagement and dialogue continues into the future,"

said Professor Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic

Studies Center in Amman, Jordan.

He told a news conference the forum would be able "to work out issues

and an exchange of opinions about important matters."

Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a

lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that

Islam was violent and irrational.

Muslims around the world protested and the pope sought to make amends

when he visited Turkey's Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its

Imam.

"For some Muslims the wounds of the (pope's) German lecture are not

completely healed and there are some Muslims who are boycotting the

Vatican ... and still feel offended by that quite deeply," Nayed said

in answer to a question.

PAPAL SPEECH STILL HURTS

"Just because we are part of this initiative does not mean that we are

not hurt by this, however we must not only dwell on the negative but

also dwell on the positive. There have been some recent positive moves

by the Vatican," he said.

After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and

leaders wrote to the German-born pontiff and other Christian leaders

last year, saying "the very survival of the world itself" may depend on

dialogue between the two faiths.

"Muslims and Christians make up about 55 percent of the world and there

will be no peace in the world unless there is peace between these two

communities," Ibrahim Kalin of the Seta Foundation in Turkey told the

news conference.

The signatories of the Muslim appeal for dialogue, called the "Common

Word," has grown to nearly 240 since.

"This whole initiative is about healing, it is about healing the wounds

of a very pained and in many ways destroyed world. We have cruelty all

over the place, we have wars, we have famines we have massacres, we

have terrorist acts, we have torture, we have people who are

kidnapped," Nayed said.

Although Benedict repeatedly expressed regret for the reaction to his

speech in Regensburg, he stopped short of a clear apology sought by

Muslims.

The Muslim delegation said the forum would meet every two years and

alternate between Rome and a Muslim country but would establish

structures for regular contacts and links to deal with one member

called "an emergency situation."

(Editing by Sami Aboudi)

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