Jordan’s Prince on Third Catholic-Muslim Summit

(Vatican Radio)  Jordan’s Prince El Hassan bin Talal says he is one of the Muslim world’s leaders who has responded to Pope Francis’ call for universal condemnation of violent extremism in the name of religion.  This, as Christians in the Middle East feel increasing pressure - if not persecution - from Islamic extremists determined to cleanse the region of its Christian presence.

Prince El Hassan told Vatican Radio Friday that Muslim leaders most recently answered Pope Francis’ appeal by coming to Rome to participate in the Third Catholic-Muslim Summit in Rome organized by the Pontifical Council for Interrreligious Dialogue December 2-4.  The theme of the summit, which enjoyed the participation of dozens of Sunni, Shia, Christian and other faith leaders from all over the world, was “Christians and Muslims: Believers Living in Society.”

If Muslim leaders were not responding to the urgency of the situation, Prince El Hassan reflected, “I would not have been here with Sunni and Shia leaders for the first time in such a meeting which of course bridges two divides: one - Sunni-Shia, and one…Arab Muslim-non Arab Muslim - to condemn jointly the use of religion and the instrumentalization of religious terms.”

Prince El Hassan further noted the participation of the Shia delegate whom he found “was most outspoken when he said that ‘sadly, religions that used to be accounted as the messengers of peace, friendship, morality and tranquility…have become in many parts of the world the cause of bloody and violent deeds.’”  Therefore, the Prince continued,  “the arch-duty, he says of religious leaders is to wipe out these emerging ugly and hideous appearances of the religions.”

“So what I think is important is that there are many, many calls -  I have a whole library of calls by Muslim leaders - “ Prince El Hassan affirmed.  “But unfortunately, the bad news stories persist and I think there is a growing feeling that 1.5 billion Muslims are being tainted by the actions of a fundamentalist, iconoclastic few.  Now we need to work on motivating the ‘silenced’ or silent majority.”