The Pope continued Catholic-Muslim dialogue during his visit to Bahrain | Tech Reddy

Eliza Allen, Tablet Special

ROME – Since his election in March 2013, Pope Francis has made dialogue with Islam a cornerstone of his papacy, visiting several Muslim-majority sites and meeting with top Islamic leaders, drawing sharp distinctions between the true religion and extremist fundamentalism.

This was one of the main motivations to continue the agenda Visit to Bahrain on November 3-6it marked his second visit to the Gulf state following a high-profile visit to Abu Dhabi in February 2019.

Since then, he has made a series of trips to other Muslim-majority countries, including Morocco in March 2019, Iraq in March 2021, and Kazakhstan in September.

In Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis signed an important document on human brotherhood with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the former president of Egypt’s prestigious Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious theological institution in Sunni Islam, and the Grand Imam, promoting Catholic-Muslim dialogue. Al-Azhar Mosque.

During his visit to Iraq last year, Pope Francis was received by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the world’s most respected Shia clerics.

Al-Tayeb, whom Pope Francis has met several times since he first welcomed him to the Vatican in 2017, also attended a high-level interfaith summit in Astana earlier this year that drew Pope Francis to Kazakhstan.

Pope Francis visited Bahrain to participate in a major interfaith summit called “Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence”. participation of top leaders of world religions, including members of the Bahrain Regional Muslim Council; Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the world Orthodox Christian community; Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church; and rabbis from the United States.

In addition to the forum, Pope Francis met privately with al-Tayeb and held a public meeting with Bahrain’s Council of Muslim Elders, where he stressed the importance of brotherly dialogue and mutual understanding.

“We must meet each other more and more, recognize and respect each other, put truth over ideas, people over opinions, openness to heaven over earthly differences,” he told the leaders. We must put the future above the past of antagonism.”

For this purpose, al-Tayeb also took advantage of the Pope’s visit and proposed holding a historic Shia-Sunni summit in the closing speech of the Bahrain Forum on November 4, inviting Muslim scholars from around the world to “representatives of every doctrine, sect and madhhab.” Destroy the Islamic dialogue, the dialogue of unity, harmony and hatred, the dialogue of Islamic brotherhood, division, discord and, especially, religious discord.”

If such a meeting is to take place, al-Tayeb said it should focus on “commonalities and meeting points while understanding differences.”

“Let us banish together all words of hatred, provocation and excommunication, and reject all forms and all negative branches of conflict, ancient and modern,” he said.

Senior scholars of Al-Azhar and the Council of Muslim Elders are ready to host the summit: “With open hearts and hands, let us sit together at a round table, put aside our differences, and strengthen our Islamic unity on certain positions.” to be pragmatic and to serve the purposes of Islam and its laws, which forbid Muslims from inciting division and separatism,” he said.

Sunni and Shia are the two major branches of Islam, which split in the 7th century and maintain different traditions in terms of religious practice. In many places there is tension between the two communities and sometimes this tension has led to violent conflicts in several Middle Eastern countries.

Pope Francis’ relationship with the Muslim world has been mainly with the Sunnis. But his visit to Bahrain gave him the opportunity to get to know the Shiite community even more.

Bahrain is 70% Muslim, with approximately two-thirds following the Shiite tradition and one-third practicing Sunni Islam, including the ruling Al Khalifa family.

The conflict between the two branches in Bahrain is well-known and has led several human rights groups and advocates to accuse the Sunni ruling family of widespread discrimination against the Shia community, including the persecution of dissenters and arbitrary arrests, as well as ill-treatment of detainees. .

While in Bahrain, Pope Francis did not speak out against human rights abuses, but he urged authorities to step up their commitment to human rights by abolishing the death penalty and working to end religious discrimination.

In his opening remarks, Pope Francis noted that the Bahraini constitution prohibits discrimination based on “sex, origin, language, religion or belief” and that “freedom of conscience is absolute” and that “the state guarantees the inviolability of worship.”

These commitments, he said, must always be put into practice so that “religious freedom is not limited to full and free worship” and “equal dignity and opportunities are given to every group and every person.” individually”.

However, before all these guarantees, he said, it is necessary to “right to life” and “guarantee this right at all times, including for those who should not be killed”.

In his last address to bishops, clergy and religious representatives, Pope Francis made another appeal on behalf of the prisoners, saying that the prisoners carry the face of Jesus and “how these “little ones” are treated is a measure of dignity and the hope of society.”

He also offered encouragement to Bahrain’s Catholic community, which numbers about 80,000 in a country of about 1.5 million, many of whom are migrants from the Philippines and India.

Bahrain is home to the first Catholic church in the Arabian Gulf, opened in the capital Manama in 1939, and its largest, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, opened last year in Awali and built on donated land. By His Majesty King Hamad.

Speaking at a Mass in Bahrain on November 5 with Catholics and those from neighboring countries, Pope Francis urged them to always act with love, especially in difficult and even oppressive situations, because this is the only way to peace.

There will always be conflicts, disagreements and oppression, he said in his home, Jesus’ own answer to such situations is to ask his disciples: “regardless of everything, always, faithfully, to remain in love. enemy”.

When the human reaction is to seek revenge, Jesus shows a different and seemingly “unthinkable” way to turn the other cheek.

“That is what the Lord is asking of us,” he said. “Brotherhood is not an idealistic dream of a world, starting from ourselves, concretely and courageously realizing common brotherhood, persevering in good even when harm is done to us, breaking the spiral of revenge, disarming violence, disarming. heart.”