The Uncommonality of a Common Word

NOVEMBER 4, 2008 WAS an historic day. Not only did it mark a new chapter in the long and complicated history of race relations in the United States, it also marked an historic event in the long and multifaceted relationship between Islam and Christianity. For the first time in the history of Muslim-Christian relations, a delegation of 29 Catholic cardinals, bishops and scholars met with 29 leading Muslim authorities and scholars representing some of the most established figures in the Sunni and Shiite worlds. After two days of meetings that marked the first in a series of bi-annual seminars held by the newly established Catholic-Muslim Forum, they issued a fifteen-point final declaration that included an appeal for the defense of religious minorities and a call for Muslims and Christians to work together in promoting peace the world over. The declaration read, "We profess that Catholics and Muslims are called to be instruments of love and harmony among believers, and for humanity as a whole, renouncing any oppression, aggressive violence and terrorism, especially that committed in the name of religion, and upholding the principle of justice for all."' In his comments at the final session, Pope Benedict XVI affirmed that Muslims and Christians share moral values and should defend them together: There is a great and vast field in which we can act together in defending and promoting the moral values which are part of our common heritage. We should thus work together in promoting genuine respect for the dignity of the human person and fundamental human rights, even though our anthropological visions and our theologies justify this in different ways.