Card. Tauran: Freedom of religion, best cure against fundamentalism
Doha (AsiaNews) - At the opening of an inter-religious conference, yesterday, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said that true religious faith is "the best antidote to all forms of fanaticism." Speaking in English in front of more than 200 delegates gathered for the international meeting, he also stressed that "Political leaders have nothing to fear from true believers."
Among other prominent speakers and guests there were Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Pope Shenouda III; Archibishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue; Hamed Ben Ahmad Al-Rufai, president of the World Islamic Congress for Dialogue.
Card. Tauran was invited for his deep knowledge and experience in Middle East political and religious fields. He was also actively involved in the opening of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Qatar as Vatican Secretary for Relations with States.
Among the Gulf states, Qatar is one of the most open, where Christians have more freedom. For a long time the Emir of Qatar, to modernize Islam and his country, has opened a permanent relationship with the West and Christianity. The present meeting is part of this plan of modernization. According to the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Abdullah ibn Khalifa Al-Thani, the Doha conference should "exalt the sublime values of Islam and Christianity". He even made the proposal that starting next year the interreligious meeting could be opened to Jewish representatives.
Freedom of religion is one of the most painful topic in the relationship between Christianity and Islam. Various Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia - do not allow a free expression of other belief except Islam; conversion from Islam to another belief is condemned as "apostasy" .
Card. Tauran stressed the importance of religious freedom and mutual respect in Muslim-Christian relations. "Preventing their brothers and sisters from practicing their religion, discriminating against a follower of a religion other than one's own, or worse still, killing in the name of religion, are abominations that offend God and which no cause or authority, be it political or religious, can ever justify" he said.
The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Cairo, Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi, also spoke out about religious freedom, as a fundamental duty of any society. According to this highest authority in the Sunni Muslim world, no one should be forced into a particular faith. "Coercion and belief are two contradictory elements," he said.
At the meeting there were some discordant voices. Muslim cleric Sheikh Yussef Qaradawi, accused the Christian world at diminishing the religious value of Islam: "Do all Christians recognize Islam as a divine religion?", he asked.
The conference has been organized by Qatar's Gulf Studies Centre and the Vatican's commission for Religious Relations with Muslims, part of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
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