Interreligious dialogue

A dialogue for life

The meeting of the Caritas organisations of the Middle East and North Africa, held in April 2006 in Cyprus, was an opportunity to reflect on interreligious dialogue and on its real implementation. The mission of Caritas is to practise this dialogue and to act on it.

Mgr Jean Sleiman, President of Caritas Iraq and Latin Archbishop of Bagdad presented the following analysis:

“If globalisation favours the arrival of a more united humanity despite its pluralism, it nonetheless brings with it serious totalitarian risks inherent in every hegemonic design. The dominant model, reinforced by capitalism and the media, eats away at the culture and irritates the cultural identity, in particular the religious identity, inciting reactions of refusal and withdrawal, or even extreme fundamentalist resistance that makes a religious person a fanatic and radicalises politics. Terrorism becomes a holy war. Intolerance becomes legitimate in the very name of religion and of God himself (…)

“Faced with these contradictions, the mission of interreligious dialogue is to promote a universalism that respects differences and values diversity (…)

“The dialogue of living together is a preparation for taking action together. The principle causes of humanity bring together more and more believers of all faiths: the promotion of peace, justice, religious freedom, equality between men and women, the defence of children exploited either by work or sex, protection of natural resources and the environment, the fight against discrimination, against unemployment, racism, etc.”

Ibrahim Chamseddine, a Lebanese Shiite, President of the “Imam M.M. Shamsuddin Foundation for Dialogue” in Beirut, shows how the dialogue between Christians and Muslims is not simply a fashion fad but responds rather to an obligation, to the need that the two religions have to conduct a “dialogue for life”. They share a belief in the one God who created all things, in a God who created man, they also both believe in the resurrection, in the dignity of mankind and in the necessary unity of the human family.

Muslims and Christians must both face the same challenges of poverty, famine, under-development, nuclear arms, and the forces of nature. The tsunami at the end of 2004 did not select its victims according to their faith; the victims were Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

The interreligious partnership does not consist of merging faiths or creating a third religion. The fundamental idea is mutual acceptance; it is a dialogue for life. Each religion has two areas, one for its believers and those who are culturally attached to the faith, and a common area where it can meet the other to face humanity’s problems together in order to place man firmly on God’s path and to restore his faith.

Interreligious dialogue takes place in actions carried out by our members: Caritas Mauritania or Caritas Iraq and their staff, who are mostly Muslims, our multiple actions and cooperation endeavours with Muslim communities and populations in Europe. Asia, and the Middle East; with the Hindu populations in India and Nepal; our programme in Darfur is being built with Protestant organisations and 99.9% of it benefits Muslims. In Sri Lanka, following the tsunami, the invitation to bid procedure ensured that there was a selection of suppliers from various religious backgrounds: Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims.

In Indonesia, the largest Moslem country in the world, Christians represent about 8% of the population, Hindus 2% and Buddhists 1%. A good quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. Fundamentalist Islam is growing. Traditionally, the Church was always involved in the schools. In recent years, the Church has become more critical of the regime. It has just launched a campaign against the “culture of corruption” and wants to take action against violence as well as promoting protection of the environment.

Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja insisted on the fact that the difficulties are not of a religious nature, but are economic and ethnic. He is urging collaboration with the Muslims. Catholics risk being caught between two fundamentalisms, the fundamentalism of certain Muslims and the fundamentalism of American Protestants. Here too, the number of sects is growing. Living together must be developed. First the social aspect, not the liturgy: “There are no Catholic specificities, there are only human specificities.”

English translation: Valérie Perales