Embassy Vatican digital video conference highlights relations between the Catholic Church and Islam in the United States, March 8, 2007

“Relations between the Catholic Church and Islam in the United States” was the topic of a digital video conference held on Thursday, March 8 th at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. Father Francis V. Tiso, Associate Director, Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat, PhD, President of the Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland and the founder of the Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation spoke to our audience about their experiences with the Catholic Church and Islam.

Officials from the U.S. and Canadian Embassies to the Holy See, the Vatican Secretariat of State and religious orders attended the conference along with members of the media.

An important fact that both speakers brought to the attendees’ attention is that Muslims and Catholics in the United States have lived together peacefully as neighbors for decades and had engaged in dialogue for decades, but didn’t see the real importance of understanding one another until after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Imam Arafat pointed out that, "The important thing to me is how I should live with my Jewish neighbors and my Christian neighbors, and how we can make a better society." Father Tiso also stressed the result of work done over the last 20 years by the Bishops’ Conference has yielded results, "now at least 200 Muslim and Catholic leaders know one another well and have a direct and detailed knowledge of how each community of faith interprets its own traditions."

Imam Arafat and Father Tiso both stressed that Catholic and Muslims leaders "share a great hope: that Muslims will teach about Catholic Christianity based upon accurate knowledge of the Catholic faith and that Catholic Christians will teach about Islam on the basis of accurate knowledge about Islam." Members of both communities also have seen that there is no alternative to dialogue, Father Tiso said. "We have already seen where nondialogue leads: to bitterness, hatred, warfare, reprisals and the habit of mutual misrepresentation," In addition, he said, both communities recognize that because of past violence committed in the name of faith, "religion is seen today by many people as a source of societal discord and injustice that must be repudiated or placed under severe state supervision."