Interfaith Journeys
  • Home
  • Interfaith Journeys
  • Stella Reekie

United Religions

15/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Eight years ago this week Pope Benedict XVI gave an address in Regensberg in which he quoted a long forgotten Byzantine Emperor and seemed to suggest that Islam was intrinsically violent as well as inhuman and evil. Now some people are suggesting that perhaps he was prophetic and we have come to see in  Islam just what fanaticism can lead to. 

The context for the quotation was a speech about faith and reason. He wanted to show how reason untethered from faith leads to fanaticism and violence.  But is this true of Islam more than any other religion?  The history of Islam and Christianity provide much evidence that contradicts this. History does not show Islam as always and everywhere violent, or Christianity as inherently virtuous and peaceful. All religions have their dark side. Christianity has many instances of persecution, violence and brutality against other Christians never mind other faiths and even just people like so-called witches who were seen as different and therefore came under suspicion.

Should we expect things to be different in the 21st century?  We can certainly hope so but world events don't support our optimism.  At the moment  the focus is on Islam which shows us so clearly what extremists and fanatics in any religion or philosophical belief system can do - in fact what any human being can do when they think their way is the only way and their view right while everyone else is wrong.  How easy it is for human beings to harden their hearts and turn against one another even when we know that our interconnectedness, that our common origins  means we are turning against ourselves.

In the Christian Church today is the feast of the Mother of Sorrows and there is much to be sorrowful about when we look at our world.  Many Muslims feel this sorrow very keenly and want to distance themselves from the atrocities of the Islamic State which seems to be motivated only by hate, not even claiming a religious motivation for what it has done. The Muslim Council of Britain is now asking the media to stop using the name Islamic State because it has nothing to do with Islam.  They fear reprisals after the
beheading of David Haines.  Harun Khan, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said a backlash was experienced virtually every time violence carried out by extremists, who claimed to act in the name of religion, received high-profile media coverage. And so hate is imported into our own communities and we know exacerbated through social media.

Last week Shimon Peres, the former Israeli President met with Pope Francis and suggested
“The U.N. has had its time,”  “What we need is an organization of United Religions, the U.N. of religions".  This is not a new idea but one that has inspired the foundation of many interfaith organisations.  The United Religions Initiative, the World Congress of Faiths, the World Conference of Religions for Peace, the Parliament of World Religions are just some of the international bodies working for peace and reconciliation among religions. Then there are the national inter faith bodies like the Interfaith Network here in the UK and Interfaith Scotland here in my own country determined not to let atrocities carried out in the name of religion affect relations elsewhere. But where is the publicity for this?

Today the Muslim Council of Scotland issued a statement condemning the murder of 
fellow Scot, David Haines and  distancing Islam from what the statement calls "the depravity of their warped ideology". 

How much publicity has this statement been given? I cannot find it on the BBC news website. Would this not be an

opportunity to counteract the violence that could follow David Haines murder?  Would it not be an opportunity to export peace?  Meanwhile the many, many people involved in interfaith relations throughout the world carry on quietly trying to make the world a safer place for all of us.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories
    Religious Performances
    ​​

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.