NEW YORK - Unease with Pope Benedict XVI's approach to Islam has led a U.S. Muslim group to decline joining in an interfaith event with him later this week.
Several other U.S. Muslim leaders expressed similar concerns about the pope, but pledged to participate in the Washington gathering, saying the two faiths should do everything possible to improve relations.
"Our going there is more out of respect for the Catholic Church itself," said Muzammil H. Siddiqi, chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, which interprets Islamic law. "Popes come and go, but the church is there."
Siddiqi, co-chairman of the West Coast Muslim-Catholic Dialogue, is among the Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Jain and Hindu leaders scheduled to meet Benedict on Thursday at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. Muslims and Roman Catholics each have more than 1 billion followers worldwide. U.S. Catholic and Muslim leaders started holding interfaith talks in the early 1990s, and many of the Muslim leaders invited to the event Thursday are veterans of those discussions.
But Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, said the event seemed "more ceremonial than substantive" and his organization would not participate. He said he was disappointed that no time was made in the pope's six-day trip for even a brief private meeting with U.S. Muslim leaders.
This is the first trip to the U.S. that Benedict has made since he was elected in 2005 to succeed John Paul. He turns 81 on Wednesday.
"It would have been a good opportunity for him to have a dialogue," al-Marayati said.
The pope has been praised by supporters for his frankness in approaching Islam and interfaith dialogue in general, but critics have called him insensitive.
Muslims in many nations reacted angrily when the pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor connecting Islam with violence in a 2006 speech at Germany's Regensburg University. Tensions eased after Benedict traveled to Turkey that same year, visiting Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque.
The pope was applauded for organizing a Nov. 4-6 meeting in Rome with Muslim religious leaders and scholars, as part of a push for more dialogue between Catholics and Muslims.
But many Muslims said the pontiff insulted them on Easter Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica, when he baptized Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born commentator who has criticized what he called the "inherent" violence in Islam. Islamic leaders said the prominence of the ceremony, not the conversion itself, was troubling.
"It's true that some of the gestures, some of the statements make us uncomfortable and we feel badly about it," said Sayyid Syeed, national interfaith director of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest communal group for American Muslims. "But our challenge is to not let those challenges hamper progress." Syeed will attend the meeting Thursday.
Imam Yahya Hendi, a leading advocate of interfaith dialogue and chaplain at the Jesuit-founded Georgetown University, had met John Paul and said he would participate in the interfaith gathering, because "I believe in the power of love and the power of dialogue." Hendi will also be among the thousands of people at a ceremony for the pope Wednesday at the White House.
But Hendi said that he and other Muslims were concerned that the pope wasn't visiting a mosque or meeting with leaders who represent the millions of Muslims living in the U.S. Continue >>
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We support the Pope Benedict XVI even though we are not Catholic, because he express no fear whatsoever in front of radical Islam, unlike most leaders.
As the article state he is definitely forthright in engaging Islam.
The more Usama bin Laden hassled him, the more pronounced his exploit against Islam.
critics have called him insensitive
Why would the Pope listen to dhimmies? Dhimmies can rant all the way they want.
Muslims on the other hand, specifically US Muslims, needs to stop moaning. Really
Let it go already, millions are freely converting to Christianity and become born again believers.
Pull your faces out of the dust and start thinking
Magdi Allam is a good example for you, follow his example and embrace the love of our Great Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and renounce the death cult and violence of the Quran, Hadith and Muhammad Sunnah.
There you go
Wow. Muslim leaders acting like a bunch of spoiled children again. Why am I not surprised.
Comeon' you guys, show some respect to the Pope. Least you can do is shake hands with him. I am sure the divisions cannot be bridged in a day, but it will be a great gesture. Boycotting something like this sends only wrong signals. Learn a bit from Dalai Lama, in spite of all the brutality, he is always ready to shake hands with the communists. Peace!!
Popes do come and go, as the Catholic Church is NOT their Church; it's Jesus' Church. As Paul said in 1 Cor. 4:15, "I became your father in the gospel..." The Italian word for father is papa, from where we get "pope." Straight back to the Bible. Peter and all who came after him in that key-holding role instituted by Jesus are only the stewards for Jesus' Mt. 16:18 Church.
It's a shame this meeting will not take place, because the moment one ceases to fight against Jesus and His Church, that very moment one is drawn to it.