Originally posted on Huffington Post Religion, February 27, 2012.
By Dr. Sarah Sayeed.
With New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s elevation to Cardinal, Catholics and many who live alongside Catholics are hoping that the good works of the Church will grow. During the season of Lent, when Catholics deepen their connection with Jesus, and this lunar month when Muslims celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birth, my own wish, as an American Muslim and a New Yorker, is that intergroup relations between Catholics and Muslims will deepen.
Written by leading Muslim scholars around the world to their Christian counterparts, A Common Word between Us and You, offers a way forward, focused on themes of loving God and loving your neighbor. It is necessary that Muslim and Catholic leaders of Dolan’s stature actively endorse and encourage such interfaith dialogue to permeate from scholars to the grassroots. Initiatives deserving special support are those which incorporate dialogue as well as opportunities to live out shared social justice values. By helping people who face poverty and other social and economic challenges, these collaborative projects can help reinforce individual faithfulness, create mutual empathy and also offer something bigger and beneficial to wider society. There is good reason to believe that we may be moving in that direction in New York City, since Archbishop Dolan has already stated his desire to build longer-term relationships with the City’s Muslim community.
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