Pope Approves Permanent Catholic-Muslim Forum

Interesting…

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk In a ground breaking move Pope Benedict XVI has approved the setting up of a permanent Catholic-Muslim Forum – the first of its kind – which is to hold its inaugural summit meeting in the Vatican in November. The historic move follows three days of talks in Rome between Vatican officials and a Muslim delegation representing 138 Muslim scholars who last year wrote an open letter to the Pope and other Christian leaders calling for dialogue, a move inspired by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammed bin Talal of Jordan. The Muslim initiative was a reponse to the Pope’s controversial speech at Regensburg University in his native Germany in 2006, where he appeared to describe Islam as inherently violent and irrational by quoting a Byzantine Emperor. He later said he had been misunderstood, and prayed alongside an imam at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul during a visit to Turkey.

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