Editorials

 


 

Christians and Muslims hold high-level meeting in Berlin

Participants commit themselves to constructive debate

October 22, 2008

Bible and Koran

The television cameras were already waiting when the participants to the dialogue emerged from the meeting room after one and a half hours of discussions. The room where the press conference was being held was jam packed, and journalists jostled for space to get the best picture and to be able to ask the first questions. That was four years ago, in January 2005, when the first high-level meeting between the EKD and Muslim associations in Germany took place. At the time, the event caused quite a stir due to the explosive content. Four years later, a certain degree of tranquility has returned; only a small handful of journalists were patiently waiting Monday evening when the doors of the conference room at the offices of the EKD representative in Berlin swung open and EKD Bishop for Foreign Affairs Martin Schindehütte, the chairperson of the Muslim coordination committee Erol Pürlü, Bekir Alboga, the Diyanet Isleri Türk-Islam Birligi (Ditib) envoy to the dialogue, and the chairperson of the Islamic Council of Germany Ali Kizilkaya came out to meet the press. The participants praised the fact that a frank, constructive atmosphere had prevailed while disagreements had not been glossed over.

There are at present a large number of Christian-Muslim dialogue projects, the EKD bishop for foreign affairs declared. Not only did the World Council of Churches (WCC) convene an international Christian-Muslim conference in Geneva nearly simultaneously, but in mid-October, the head of the Anglican Communion Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams had also invited high-ranking Christian and Islamic representatives to England to deliberate about the future of interreligious dialogue.  "This clearly demonstrates how much the Christian-Muslim dialogue has grown in breadth and in quality," Schindehütte said.

The discussions made poignantly clear that substantive dialogue must address not only common views, but also differences, that can confront each other in a spirit of peaceful dialogue.  "Clarifying differences is the very purpose of dialogue, not the precondition.   The point of departure of any dialogue is disagreement; differing points of view constitute the meat of the dialogue." This is quite evident, for example, in the central theme of the open letter "A Common Word" that 138 Muslim figures addressed a year ago to leading representatives of the Christian faith, namely that the love of God and the love of neighbor are the common ground between faiths. "What do we understand by love of God?" Bishop Schindehütte asked. Close scrutiny will quickly reveal differences in our understandings of God also.  "But that is no reason not to speak to each other, quite the contrary."

At the Cologne Kirchentag last year, Bekir Alboga sharply disagreed with EKD Council chairperson Bishop Wolfgang Huber over the EKD guideline Clarity and Good Neighborly Relations. One journalist wanted to know whether the climate had suddenly become more blissful.   "No," Alboga replied, but we are pursuing our dialogue, and a culture of debate is one of the hallmarks of dialogue and we are cultivating it." In the discussions, Muslim representatives have again made clear that they continue to see a need for clarification with respect to the guideline. "We want clarity about clarity," was the way Axel Ayyub Köhler, chairperson of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, put it. Köhler urged including the debate about Clarity and Good Neighborly Relations in a new edition of the publication in the form of an annex or a commentary. The letter "A Common Word" would also be a fertile point of departure for further discussions.   The next dialogue, at which the open letter will be discussed, has already been scheduled for 5-7 December and is being organized jointly by the Evangelical Academy of Berlin and the Muslim Academy in Germany. Plans call for continuing the tradition of these annual high-level meetings between the EKD and Muslim associations.




 


 

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