Muslim praises Pope's "thirst" to understand
Islam
Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:28am ET148
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
PARIS (Reuters) - Pope Benedict is no expert on Islam but has a
real thirst for understanding the religion and conducting a sincere
dialogue with its followers, says a Muslim philosopher who
discussed Islam and Christianity with him.
Mustapha Cherif, a former higher education minister and ambassador
of his native Algeria, said the Pope showed during a meeting at the
Vatican on Saturday he wanted to understand Muslim views on jihad
and the role of reason in faith.
The Pope, who sparked Muslim protests in September with a speech
hinting Islam was violent and irrational, also wanted to explore
how the faiths could work together. He is due to visit
predominately Muslim Turkey late this month.
"He is a great theologian but not an expert in Islam," Cherif, the
first Muslim intellectual received by Benedict since his election
in April 2005, said on Monday evening in Paris. "What touched me
was his thirst to understand.
"He is a man of dialogue," Cherif, long been active in
Christian-Muslim dialogue in France, told Reuters.
Muslim thinkers have criticized Benedict's speech in Regensburg,
Germany because it drew what they said were false conclusions based
on books by Christian writers about Islam.
While several Christians have written fine books on Islam, Cherif
said, there was no substitute for discussing the faith with a
believing Muslim. "He needs to have someone explain it to him with
respect, which is what I did," he said.
Cherif said he told Benedict that jihad, usually translated in the
West as holy war, was really a concept for a just war with rules on
fighting and protecting non-combatants.
"This jihad is the same as what Saint Augustine said about the just
war," he said, referring to the fifth-century Christian theologian
Benedict wrote about in his doctoral dissertation.
"He was surprised by that and said it had to be better known," said
Cherif, who asked to meet Benedict even before his Regensburg
speech. "He didn't know the nuances."
During their half-hour discussion in French, Cherif said he also
refuted what he called the misunderstandings that Islam was spread
by the sword and that it did not value reason -- two issues
Benedict referred to in his Regensburg speech.
Noting that Benedict later expressed regret for appearing to
criticize Islam, Cherif said: "All we want is that he understands
and doesn't repeat what he said.
"I leave the polemics to the polemicists. I accept the debate and
his readiness for dialogue. The majority of Muslims want a
respectful dialogue and refuse stigmatization."
Cherif said dialogue could help Christians and Muslims look beyond
their recent tensions to see they are allies in a struggle against
the loss of faith and rise of religious hatred.
"Misunderstandings and hatred have grown in the 15 years since the
first Gulf War," he said. "We should not let these 15 years make us
forget 15 centuries of common history."