THOSE WHO ARE TERRIFIED OF FREEDOM SEEK TO IMPOSE ORDER VIA TERROR:

For the First Time, a Muslim Writes for the Pope's Newspaper: The new columnist is Khaled Fouad Allam. In surprising harmony with Benedict XVI. Both are in favor of a Christian-Islamic dialogue that is not a compromise between the faiths, but an encounter of cultures (Sandro Magister, December 1, 2008, Chiesa)

They did not see or hear from each other, and yet both of them, during the same days, argued for ideas that are surprisingly similar. On the one side was the pope, Benedict XVI, in a letter-preface to a book; on the other a Muslim thinker, Khaled Fouad Allam (in the photo), the first Muslim asked to write for the front page of the pontifical newspaper, "L'Osservatore Romano."

The proximity of thought between the two is all the more surprising in that it is manifested on incendiary terrain, the relationship between Christianity and Islam. [...]

The religions and the fate of the world (Khaled Fouad Allam, November 30, 2008, L'Osservatore Romano)

We are living through a global crisis, and for this very reason reflection on dialogue between Islam and Christianity deserves to be re-proposed from a new perspective. Obviously, relations between these two great religious are ancient, not only because of their geographical proximity but also because of the history of the two spiritual traditions. For decades – in many regards, since Vatican Council II – relations between Muslims and Christians have involved various dimensions, including encounter on the religious level, although this rarely makes it possible to get to the heart of the matter, to highlight its ups and downs, and often it accentuates our inability to broaden our thinking.

Precisely because of this generalized crisis, dialogue between Christianity and Islam must be considered in its philosophical dimension, meaning research and analysis of what can help us to identify the dangers of this crisis, and how to overcome it. It is always in the experience of pain, evil, and suffering that human beings are called to their responsibilities before history and eternity. The catastrophe of the past twenty years, the radicalization of consciences, the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the return of intolerance toward certain faiths, are signs of an evil that humanity is now living through.

But it is precisely the experience of suffering, individual and collective, that makes possible the encounter with the other, even if the suffering remains intact and unavoidable. It is therefore no coincidence that, again, in the search for a new international order and peaceful coexistence among peoples and cultures, the very notion of dialogue should involve, as is obvious, areas not included in the traditional religious questions.

It is difficult for us to enter the twenty-first century because the twentieth century still weighs upon us too heavily; and if some describe it as the "century of history," this is simply because it has concealed the complex relationship between history and eternity. An unprecedented conflict between the desire for eternity and living in history has produced the contemporary forgetfulness of the substance of things; the use of the word "modernity" is significant of all of this, because modernity has permitted us to forget that everything is temporary on this earth, and that we are visitors here.

We are still living today in the ambiguity of this relationship: our behaviors are impregnated with it, to the point that often in the religions – for example, in the case of Islam – history takes possession of eternity, through the action of the men least suited for dialogue. This is what is happening in Islamic radicalism, which in some situations seeks to impose the tragic order of tyranny.