The confusion has now been resolved, with the latter being issued on the anniversary of the former. The second and more recent letter is addressed to a number of different Christian leaders and is a call for Muslims and Christians to work together for peace. It is addressed to all Chtristian leaders everywhere, and is addressed to two African church leaders by name: His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa and His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Apostolic Throne of St. Mark.
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. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.
Ruth Gledhill, the religion correspondent of The Times, blogs about it here, and reports that Irene Lancaster thinks the letter is "threatening". Part of the confusion about the two letters was caused by Ruth Gledhill linking to the wrong one on her blog, which one hopes may be corrected.
There seems to have been a mixed reaction among Christians, but I think that any call for peace is a hopeful sign, if it can be followed up. Religious leaders might not be able to deter political leaders who are bent on war. Many of the Christian leaders to whom the letter was addressed urged the USA and Britain not to invade Iraq in 2003, and the call was ignored. But quite a number of ordinary Christians went to Iraq to face the bombs.
Imagine what might have happened if Christian and Muslim leaders had been united, and the Roman Pope, Orthodox Patriarchs and the other leaders to whom the letter was addressed had gone to Baghdad in March 2003 and refused to move until George Bush withdrew his threat?
The world might have been a much less dangerous place today.
So if the letter leads to united action for peace by Muslim and Christian leaders, it is to be welcomed.
4 comments:
Anyone with a speck of intellect and who has merely perused the Koran would know that this letter is a farce. It's more reminiscent of Muhammad's hudnas, or "peace treaties" which were almost always used by Muslims to gain tactical advantage over their enemies and, subsequently, to destroy them.
The letter is littered with inane and irrelevant Koranic verses which promote total disingenuousness when countless other Koranic verses which speak completely against such motives are left unaddressed (possibly because of "kitman", or Islamic deception by ommission).
I urge you to take a look at Robert Spencer's interpretation of the letter where he also references the innumerable Koranic verses speaking of the filth and unworthiness of Christians. How can "peace" be considered when this is not even mentioned?
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018436.php
More perspective on the letter from Ryan Evans at The Investigative Project on Terrorism:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/519
Hard Rain,
I got tired of all the horizontal scrolling I had to do to try to read it.
Not sure what you mean. I view both pages without needing to scroll horizontally. Sounds like a resolution problem on your side...
Post a Comment