MABDA Report 22/3/2015
Vatican interfaith expert hails Catholic-Muslim progress
Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, one of the Vatican's foremost experts on Islam, told an audience in Washington DC that interreligious dialogue between Catholics and Muslims is not only possible but necessary.
“Life, action, discourse and spiritual experience, these four levels of dialogue were highlighted at Vatican II,” Archbishop Fitzgerald said, as the way interreligious dialogue should proceed.
The archbishop, who headed the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue before serving as nuncio to Egypt and apostolic representative to the Arab League, noted that Catholics and Muslims have lived side by side in many cities for centuries without overt strife, even though “it takes effort not to live in ghettoes”.
Interfaith exchange builds bridges at Thornhill Jewish, Muslim, Catholic schools
How can you love your neighbour if you don’t know him?
That’s the question behind a new interfaith initiative in York Region that brings students from Jewish, Islamic and Christian schools together.
Grade 7 students at the Leo Baeck Day School’s North Campus and their counterparts at the As-Sadiq Islamic School along with St. Joseph the Worker Catholic School have launched a series of visits to build bridges between their faiths.
UK Muslims & Terror: False Link Rejected
At a time when Europe marches to the tune of far-rightists' drum, its capitals entranced by the aggressive and often openly racist narrative pouring from groups such as the Pegida movement in Germany, the Front National in France or again the UKip in Britain, Muslims everywhere have grown uneasy.
“Because really the discussion we’re having is about sectarianism. It is not about whether or not Islam is inherently dangerous, but rather if Muslims are desirable in a western society set-up,” Elizabeth Ferguson, a rights activist with the Omega Movement (a London-based not-for-profit organization aiming to denounce Islamophobia and racism) told OnIslam.net in exclusive comments.