Christian clerics respond to Muslim hand of peace

Full text of the letter below:
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> Christian clerics respond to Muslim hand of peace
> WAM
> Published: November 26, 2007,
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> http://www.gulf-news.com/nation/Society/10170624.html
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> Abu Dhabi: More than 300 Christian clergymen signed a letter,
> apologising to Muslims for Crusades and the consequences of the war on
> terror, which resulted in human and faith damages.
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> In a letter titled 'Loving God and Neighbour Together', the Christian
> clerics replied to an earlier letter from 138 Muslim scholars titled
> 'A common Word Between Us and You'.
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> Unprecedented
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> Dr Habib Ali Al Jafri, Muslim propagator, said: "I am happy with this
> letter, which is considered as an unprecedented step to bring the
> Islamic and Christian faiths and civilisations closer."
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> Speaking at a press conference held yesterday at the Abu Dhabi
> Cultural Foundation, Al Jafri said Muslims and Christians make up 55
> per cent of the world's population, and this new closeness serves as
> the first firm step towards returning to peace, brotherhood and
> harmony between people.
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> He added that more steps would follow in response to the apology to
> enhance interfaith dialogue. The letter from Muslim scholars was sent
> to 27 Christian heads of churches around the world, including the
> Vatican.
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> Twenty-five of them replied, but no reply has been received yet from
> the Vatican and an Orthodox church, Al Jafri said.
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> Miroslav Volf, Director for Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, said
> the earlier letter from Muslim scholars has touched Christians and
> awakened the sentiments of tolerance and closeness between the two
> sides.
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> The clerics who signed the letter are from all over the world, mostly
> from the US, and represent the largest sector of Christians.
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> Following is the full text of the letter:
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> Loving God and Neighbour Together
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> As members of the worldwide Christian community, we were deeply
> encouraged and challenged by the recent historic open letter signed by
> 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around
> the world. A Common Word Between Us and You identifies some core
> common ground between Christianity and Islam which lies at the heart
> of our respective faiths as well as at the heart of the most ancient
> Abrahamic faith, Judaism. Jesus Christ's call to love God and
> neighbour was rooted in the divine revelation to the people of Israel
> embodied in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). We receive
> the open letter as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation
> extended to Christians worldwide. In this response we extend our own
> Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings
> we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our
> neighbours.
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> Muslims and Christians have not always shaken hands in friendship;
> their relations have sometimes been tense, even characterized by
> outright hostility. Since Jesus Christ says, "First take the log out
> of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out
> of your neighbour's eye" (Matthew 7:5), we want to begin by
> acknowledging that in the past ( e.g. in the Crusades) and in the
> present (e.g. in excesses of the "war on terror") many Christians have
> been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbours. Before we "shake
> your hand" in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the
> All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.
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> Religious Peace-World Peace "Muslims and Christians together make up
> well over half of the world's population. Without peace and justice
> between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful
> peace in the world." We share the sentiment of the Muslim signatories
> expressed in these opening lines of their open letter. Peaceful
> relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central
> challenges of this century, and perhaps of the whole present epoch.
> Though tensions, conflicts, and even wars in which Christians and
> Muslims stand against each other are not primarily religious in
> character, they possess an undeniable religious dimension. If we can
> achieve religious peace between these two religious communities, peace
> in the world will clearly be easier to attain. It is therefore no
> exaggeration to say, as you have in A Common Word Between Us and You,
> that "the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and
> Christians." Common Ground What is so extraordinary about A Common
> Word Between Us and You is not that its signatories recognize the
> critical character of the present moment in relations between Muslims
> and Christians. It is rather a deep insight and courage with which
> they have identified the common ground between the Muslim and
> Christian religious communities.
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> What is common between us lies not in something marginal nor in
> something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something
> absolutely central to both: love of God and love of neighbour.
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> Surprisingly for many Christians, your letter considers the dual
> command of love to be the foundational principle not just of the
> Christian faith, but of Islam as well. That so much common ground
> exists-common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith-gives hope
> that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures
> that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which
> we stand together. That this common ground consists in love of God and
> of neighbour gives hope that deep cooperation between us can be a
> hallmark of the relations between our two communities.
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> Love of God We applaud that A Common Word Between Us and You stresses
> so insistently the unique devotion to one God, indeed the love of God,
> as the primary duty of every believer. God alone rightly commands our
> ultimate allegiance. When anyone or anything besides God commands our
> ultimate allegiance-a ruler, a nation, economic progress, or anything
> else-we end up serving idols and inevitably get mired in deep and
> deadly conflicts. We find it equally heartening that the God whom we
> should love above all things is described as being Love. In the Muslim
> tradition, God, "the Lord of the worlds," is "The Infinitely Good and
> All-Merciful." And the New Testament states clearly that "God is love"
> (1 John 4:8). Since God's goodness is infinite and not bound by
> anything, God "makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends
> rain on the righteous and the unrighteous," according to the words of
> Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel (Matthew 5:45). For Christians,
> humanity's love of God and God's love of humanity are intimately
> linked. As we read in the New Testament: "We love because he [God]
> first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Our love of God springs from and is
> nourished by God's love for us. It cannot be otherwise, since the
> Creator who has power over all things is infinitely good. Love of
> Neighbour We find deep affinities with our own Christian faith when A
> Common Word Between Us and You insists that love is the pinnacle of
> our duties toward our neighbours. "None of you has faith until you
> love for your neighbour what you love for yourself," the Prophet
> Muhammad said. In the New Testament we similarly read, "whoever does
> not love [the neighbour] does not know God" (1 John 4:8) and "whoever
> does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has
> not seen" (1 John 4:20). God is love, and our highest calling as human
> beings is to imitate the One whom we worship. We applaud when you
> state that "justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part" of the
> love of neighbour. When justice is lacking, neither love of God nor
> love of the neighbour can be present. When freedom to worship God
> according to one's conscience is curtailed, God is dishonoured, the
> neighbour oppressed, and neither God nor neighbour is loved. Since
> Muslims seek to love their Christian neighbours, they are not against
> them, the document encouragingly states. Instead, Muslims are with
> them. As Christians we resonate deeply with this sentiment. Our faith
> teaches that we must be with our neighbours-indeed, that we must act
> in their favor-even when our neighbours turn out to be our enemies.
> "But I say unto you," says Jesus Christ, "Love your enemies and pray
> for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your
> Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the
> good" (Matthew 5:44-45). Our love, Jesus Christ says, must imitate the
> love of the infinitely good Creator; our love must be as unconditional
> as is God's-extending to brothers, sisters, neighbours, and even
> enemies. At the end of his life, Jesus Christ himself prayed for his
> enemies: "Forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing"
> (Luke 23:34).
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> The Prophet Muhammad did similarly when he was violently rejected and
> stoned by the people of Ta'if. He is known to have said, "The most
> virtuous behaviour is to engage those who sever relations, to give to
> those who withhold from you, and to forgive those who wrong you." (It
> is perhaps significant that after the Prophet Muhammad was driven out
> of Ta'if, it was the Christian slave 'Addas who went out to Muhammad,
> brought him food, kissed him, and embraced him.) The Task Before Us
> "Let this common ground"-the dual common ground of love of God and of
> neighbour-"be the basis of all future interfaith dialogue between us,"
> your courageous letter urges. Indeed, in the generosity with which the
> letter is written you embody what you call for. We most heartily
> agree. Abandoning all "hatred and strife," we must engage in
> interfaith dialogue as those who seek each other's good, for the one
> God unceasingly seeks our good. Indeed, together with you we believe
> that we need to move beyond "a polite ecumenical dialogue between
> selected religious leaders" and work diligently together to reshape
> relations between our communities and our nations so that they
> genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another. Given
> the deep fissures in the relations between Christians and Muslims
> today, the task before us is daunting. And the stakes are great. The
> future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims
> to live together in peace. If we fail to make every effort to make
> peace and come together in harmony you correctly remind us that "our
> eternal souls" are at stake as well.
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> We are persuaded that our next step should be for our leaders at every
> level to meet together and begin the earnest work of determining how
> God would have us fulfill the requirement that we love God and one
> another. It is with humility and hope that we receive your generous
> letter, and we commit ourselves to labor together in heart, soul, mind
> and strength for the objectives you so appropriately propose.
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> *Harold W. Attridge, Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New
> Testament, Yale Divinity School *Joseph Cumming, Director of the
> Reconciliation Program, Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Yale
> Divinity School *Emilie M. Townes, Andrew Mellon Professor of African
> American Religion and Theology, Yale Divinity School, and
> President-elect of the American Academy of Religion *Miroslav Volf,
> Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Henry
> B. Wright Professor of Theology, Yale Divinity School Martin Accad,
> Academic Dean, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (Lebanon) Scott C.
> Alexander, Director, Catholic-Muslim Studies, Catholic Theological
> Union Roger Allen, Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and
> Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania Leith Anderson, President,
> National Association of Evangelicals Ray Bakke, Convening Chair,
> Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding Camillo Ballin, Bishop,
> Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait (Roman Catholic) Barry Beisner, Bishop,
> Episcopal Diocese of Northern California Federico Bertuzzi, President,
> PM Internacional, Latin America James A. Beverley, Tyndale Seminary,
> Canada Jonathan Bonk, Executive Director, Overseas Ministries Study
> Center Gerhard B?wering, Yale University Joseph Britton, Dean,
> Berkeley Divinity School at Yale John M. Buchanan, Editor/Publisher,
> The Christian Century Joe Goodwin Burnett, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese
> of Nebraska Samuel G. Candler, Dean, Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta
> Juan Carlos C?rdenas, Instituto Iberoamericano de Estudios
> Transculturales, Spain Joseph Castleberry, President, Northwest
> University Colin Chapman, Author David Yonggi Cho, Founder and Senior
> Pastor, Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, Korea Richard Cizik, Vice
> President, National Association of Evangelicals Corneliu
> Constantineanu, Dean, Evangelical Theological Seminary, Croatia Robert
> E. Cooley, President Emeritus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
> Harvey Cox, Harvard Divinity School John D'Alton, President, Melbourne
> Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Australia Andr? Delbecq,
> University of Santa Clara Keith DeRose, Yale University Andr?s Alonso
> Duncan, CEO, Latinoamerica Global, A.C.
>
> Diana L. Eck, Harvard University Bertil Ekstrom, Executive Director,
> Mission Commission, World Evangelical Alliance Mark U. Edwards, Jr.,
> Senior Advisor to the Dean, Harvard Divinity School John Esposito,
> Director Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian
> Understanding, Georgetown University David Ford, Regius Professor of
> Divinity, Cambridge University Timothy George, Dean, Beeson Divinity
> School, Samford University Roberto S. Goizueta, Boston College Bruce
> Gordon, University of St. Andrews William A. Graham, Dean, Harvard
> Divinity School Lynn Green, International Chairman, YWAM Frank
> Griffel, Yale University Edwin F. Gulick, Jr., Bishop, Episcopal
> Diocese of Kentucky David P. Gushee, President, Evangelicals for Human
> Rights Kim B. Gustafson, President, Common Ground Elie Haddad,
> Provost, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Lebanon L. Ann Hallisey,
> Hallisey Consulting and Counseling Paul D. Hanson, Harvard Divinity
> School Heidi Hadsell, President, Hartford Seminary David Heim,
> Executive Editor, The Christian Century Norman A. Hjelm, National
> Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, retired Carl R.
> Holladay, Candler School of Theology, Emory University Joseph Hough,
> President, Union Theological Seminary, NY Bill Hybels, Founder and
> Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church Nabeel T. Jabbour,
> Consultant, Professor, Colorado Shannon Sherwood Johnston, Bishop
> Coadjutor, Episcopal Diocese of Virginia David Colin Jones, Bishop
> Suffragan, Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Stanton L. Jones, Provost,
> Wheaton College, IL Tony Jones, National Coordinator, Emergent Village
> Riad A. Kassis, Theologian, Author, Consultant Paul Knitter, Union
> Theological Seminary, NY Manfred W. Kohl, Vice President of Overseas
> Council International, USA James A. Kowalski, Dean, Cathedral of Saint
> John the Divine, NY Sharon Kugler, University Chaplain, Yale
> University Peter Kuzmic, President, Evangelical Theological Faculty
> Osijek, Croatia Peter J. Lee, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
> Linda LeSourd Lader, President, Renaissance Institute Tim Lewis,
> President, William Carey Int'l University John B.Lindner, Yale
> Divinity School Duane Litfin, President, Wheaton College Greg
> Livingstone, Founder, Frontiers Albert C. Lobe, Interim Executive
> Director, Mennonite Central Committee Rick Love, International
> Director, Frontiers Douglas Magnuson, Bethel University Peter Maiden,
> International Coordinator, OM Danut Manastireanu, World Vision
> International, Iasi, Romania Harold Masback, III, Senior Minister, The
> Congregational Church of New Canaan, New Canaan, CT Donald M. McCoid,
> Evangelical Lutheran Church in America C. Douglas McConnell, Dean,
> School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary Don
> McCurry, President, Ministries to Muslims Brian D. McLaren, Author,
> Speaker, Activist Kathleen E. McVey, Princeton Theological Seminary
> Judith Mendelsohn Rood, Biola University Steve Moore, President and
> CEO, The Mission Exchange (formerly EFMA) Douglas Morgan, Director,
> Adventist Peace Fellowship Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Theological
> Seminary Salim J. Munayer, Academic Dean, Bethlehem Bible College,
> Jerusalem Rich Nathan, Senior Pastor, Vineyard Church of Columbus
> David Neff, Editor in Chief and Vice-President, Christianity Today
> Media Group Alexander Negrov, President, St. Petersburg Christian
> University, Russia Richard R. Osmer, Princeton Theological Seminary
> George E. Packard, Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies of the Episcopal
> Church Greg H. Parsons, General Director, U.S. Center for World
> Mission Doug Pennoyer, Dean, School of Intercultural Studies, Biola
> University Douglas Petersen, Vanguard University of Southern
> California Sally Promey, Yale Divinity School Thomas P. Rausch, S.J.,
> Loyola Marymount University David A. Reed, Wycliffe College,
> University of Toronto Neil Rees, International Director, World
> Horizons Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Fuller Theological Seminary Leonard
> Rogers, Executive Director, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding
> William L. Sachs, Director, Center for Reconciliation and Mission,
> Richmond Lamin Sanneh, Yale Divinity School Andrew Saperstein, Yale
> Center for Faith and Culture Robert Schuller, Founder, Crystal
> Cathedral and Hour of Power Elizabeth Sch?ssler Fiorenza, Harvard
> Divinity School Francis Sch?ssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School
> William Schweiker, University of Chicago Donald Senior, C.P.,
> President, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago C. L. Seow, Princeton
> Theological Seminary Imad Nicola Shehadeh, President, Jordan
> Evangelical Theological Seminary David W. and K. Grace Shenk, Eastern
> Mennonite Missions Marguerite Shuster, Fuller Theological Seminary
> John G. Stackhouse, Jr., Regent College, Vancouver Glen Stassen,
> Fuller Theological Seminary Andrea Zaki Stephanous, Vice President,
> Protestant Church in Egypt Wilbur P. Stone, Bethel University, MN John
> Stott, Rector Emeritus, All Souls Church, London Frederick J. Streets,
> Yeshiva University William Taylor, Global Ambassador, World
> Evangelical Alliance John Thomas, President and General Minister,
> United Church of Christ Iain Torrance, President, Princeton
> Theological Seminary Michael W. Treneer, International President, The
> Navigators, CO Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director, World
> Evangelical Alliance George Verwer, Founder and former International
> Director, OM Harold Vogelaar, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
> Berten A. Waggoner, National Director, Association of Vineyard
> Churches Jim Wallis, President, Sojourners Rick Warren, Founder and
> Senior Pastor, Saddleback Church, and The Purpose Driven Life, Lake
> Forest, CA J. Dudley Woodberry, Dean Emeritus, Fuller School of
> International Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary Christopher J.H.
> Wright, International Director, Langham Partnership, London Robert R.
> Wilson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Yale Divinity School
> Nicholas Wolterstorff, University of Virginia Godfrey Yogarajah,
> General Secretary, Evangelical Fellowship in Asia Community Council of
> the Sisters of the Precious Blood, Dayton, OH.