Pope renews call for dialogue

Faithful to his mission, Pope Benedict XVI on September 25, addressing pilgrims at his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, again sought to repair the Islamic world's rift with the Catholic Church, assuring ambassadors from 22 Muslim countries that he always had great respect for Muslims and that "inter-religious and intellectual dialogue is a necessity".

In a brief, but very meaningful meeting, broadcast live on Al-Jazeera satellite network around the Muslim world, the Pope did not consider it opportune to refer directly to his lecture of September 12 at the University of Regensburg to the representatives of science. The main theme of this profound lecture was "Faith, Reason and his University Memories and Reflections".

The Holy Father opened his five-minute address to the Muslim ambassadors saying: "The circumstances which have given rise to our gathering are well known." He very clearly manifested his high hopes that Christians and Muslims could "work together, as indeed they already do in many common understandings, in order to guard against all forms of intolerance and to oppose all manifestations of violence".

Benedict XVI, who delivered his speech in French, said: "Dear friends, I am profoundly convinced that in the current world situation it is imperative that Christians and Muslims engage with one another in order to address the numerous challenges that present themselves to humanity."

Surely this important and reconciliatory meeting of Castelgandolfo was an authentic statement of goodwill and a vital attempt to start a broader dialogue in earnest. As Ian Fisher wrote in The International Herald Tribune (September 26): "Several participants in the meeting said they appreciated that gesture, which they said marked an end to the immediate crisis."

With regard to this crisis, Dr Tariq Ramadan, author of Western Muslims and Future of Islam and professor of Islamic studies at St Anthony's College, Oxford, expressed his views in his article in the Herald Tribune (September 21), stressing that a "few sentences spoken by Pope Benedict XVI were sufficient to touch a firestorm of impassioned reaction. Throughout the Muslim world, religious leaders, presidents, politicians and intellectuals joined voices with protesting masses angered by a perceived insult to their faith. Most did not read the Pope's speech; others relied on a sketchy summary according to which the Pope had linked Islam and violence. But all rallied against what they saw as an intolerable offence."

Dr Ramadan wrote that "whatever the judgments of these scholars and intellectuals, one would have hoped that they adopt a more reasoned approach in their critical remarks: and this for two reasons.

"First, the reverence that Muslims have for the Prophet Muhammad notwithstanding, certain groups or governments manipulate crises of this kind as a safety value for both their restive populations and their own political agenda. When people are deprived of their basic rights, it costs nothing to allow them to vent their anger over Danish cartoons or the words of the Pontiff.

"Second, the mass protests we have been witnessing, characterised primarily by uncontrollable outpouring of emotion, end up providing a living proof that Muslims cannot engage in reasonable debate and that verbal aggression and violence are more the rule than the exception. Muslim intellectuals bear the primary responsibility of not lending credibility to this counterproductive game."