Two Muslim Scholars Spoke at the Synod of Bishops of the Middle East
Two Muslim scholars, a Sunni and a Shiite, told the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East that Islam promotes respect for Christians and Jews and that the entire Middle East will suffer if Christians vanish from the region.
Pope Benedict XVI invited two Muslim religious scholars to address the synod Oct. 14: the Sunni, Muhammad al-Sammak, adviser to the chief mufti of Lebanon and secretary general of Lebanon’s Christian-Muslim Committee for Dialogue; and the Shiite, Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
Al-Sammak told the synod that Christians are not the only people suffering in the Middle East and they are not the only segment of the population tempted to emigrate.
“We share our sufferings. We live them in our social and political delays, in our economic and developmental regression, in our religious and confessional tension,” he said.
At the same time, the Lebanese told the synod, the “new and accidental phenomenon” of Christians being targeted because of their faith is dangerous, and not just for Christians.
By attacking Christians, he said, misguided, fundamentalist, politically manipulated Muslims are tearing apart the fabric of Middle Eastern societies where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side for centuries. More...