Christian and Muslim scholars meeting in Cambridge have criticized “human cupidity” identifying it as the main culprit, responsible for the global financial crisis and asking world leaders “not to allow the poor to be forced to pay the price of their greed”.
In a joint document, issued at the end of an international conference, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, with the participation of some 40 Muslim and Christian scholars, it stressed that “the principle of loving one’s neighbor is an imperative of all great monotheistic religions” and that “especially in difficult moments, such as the present one, we must remember those who are less fortunate or more needy than ourselves”. In an ever ‘interdependent’ world’ says the text it becomes “ever more urgent and necessary to know and respect one another to find a way out of our problems”.
During the conference, which has taken place on the anniversary of the publication of the letter ‘A Word in Common Between Us’ sent by 138 Muslim scholars and leaders to the heads of Christianity, the participants have appealed such for “the threats to the Christian community in Iraq, which undermine the centenary tradition of guardianship by Muslims toward Christians to end”.
Remembering “the suffering of the Iraqi people of all creeds in the past few years”, the scholars expressed their solidarity to the Iraqi people and reiterated that “there is no justification, in Christianity or Islam to promote insecurity or perpetrate violence”. Finally, the religious representatives have declared “in an unequivocal” manner that, in Iraq as in the rest of the world, “no person or community should be pursued or threatened because of their religious beliefs. We pray that Iraq may find peace and that our two faiths might work together to overcome divisions in society and to demonstrate loyalty to the commandments of loving God and one’s neighbour.”
Source: MISNA
© Independent Catholic News 2008