“A Common Word Between Us and You? Dropped by the Press
Monday, February 4th, 2008
I know I have heard plenty of conservative commentators claim that there is little in the Muslim faith that is moderate. The same conservatives who pick apart the Bible to strike back against homosexuals pick through the Koran to find incidents of violence or militancy. These nay-sayers of religious moderation were part of a majority of press observers who did not notice the letter called “A Common Word Between Us and You? written by 138 Muslim luminaries to people of the Christian faith.
This letter may have been a part of the growing pile of letters, decrees and other documents that do not get covered by the press if not for the efforts of Rita Ferrone. Ferrone wrote an article about the letter in Commonweal which touts itself as a “review of religion, politics and culture? written by lay Catholics. It is interesting that Ferrone would bring “A Common Word? out of obscurity in the recent issue of Commonweal given Pope Benedict XVI’s history of commentary on Islam. I applaud her efforts to highlight the efforts of the letter which include a connection between Christianity, Islam and Judaism as like-minded religions.
I think that a majority of people do not fall anywhere near the radicalism that is attributed to Islam or the Christian faithful. I have never thought as a Catholic that I should go anywhere near an abortion clinic much less attack vulnerable women making a difficult decision. I know there is a 27-year old Muslim writer elsewhere in the world who does not dream about sacrificing his body in a marketplace in a final act for his faith. We both want to write about and live in a better world where the few religious nuts that use eternity, faith and God or Allah as a bludgeon do not hold sway. How can a single letter addressed to Christians including the pope do anything but help out the world? We just need to push media outlets to cover moderation instead of the sizzle of extremism.
