Over the week of the US Presidential Election, ICNY joined the 4th Christian-Muslim Summit that met from Nov. 6-10th in Tehran and issued this Call to Action. This joint statement focuses on a theme of human dignity and builds on a series of Sunni-Shia-Catholic-Anglican/Episcopal dialogues originally inspired by Iranian President Khatami’s visit to the National Cathedral in Washington in 2004 where he called for a “Dialogue of Civilizations.” ICNY presented on our grassroots interfaith work with Muslims, Catholics and other faith traditions in New York City.
This Call to Action promotes a “culture of nonviolence” and recognizes the disproportionate impact of violent conflict on women and the need for women’s inclusion at peace tables and in interfaith dialogues. It calls for protection of religious minorities and a “self-reflective and self-critical” approach to sacred texts and traditions when necessary. The document states that the concepts of “Believers and Nonbelievers” should not affect “citizens’ right and social relationships. It agrees that hatred, humiliation, and persecution based on wrong understanding of the Bible or Holy Qur’an “offends God.”
The document condemns the practice of forced conversion within marriage; abduction and conversion of girls by older men, the manipulation of blasphemy laws to excuse criminal behavior. For further information about the 4th Summit and Call to Action see this Anglican Communion News Service article or the Call to Action itself, here.
The Call to Action was signed on behalf of the 4 delegations by Ayatollah Sayyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, Director of Islamic Studies at the Iran Academy of Sciences; Shaikh Dr. Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, Grand Mufti of Iraq (Sunni); Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria; Bishop John Chane, Sr., Advisor for Inter-religious Dialogue at the Washington National Cathedral.
