In Pursuit of a “New Secular”: Human Rights and “A Common Word”

This article studies the proposal of the Catholic Church towards a common base for interreligious dialogue. For the Church, dialogue with other religions can not be based on the commandments of love, as Muslim leaders suggest in their document "A Common Word" (2007), because it is an exclusive idea between Christians and Muslims; that is why the Church presents in several documents the idea of the natural law as a common pillar for all people, believers and non-believers, since God has provided humanity with reason, and this can guide human beings towards common benefit. This article analyzes the natural law as a valid means for interreligious relations.

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The Time of Dialectic Spiritualism: From Medina to Mecca Charter

Illuminatio ◽

10.52510/sia.v1i1.6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 136-191

Author(s):

Mustafa Cerić

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Common Good ◽

Creative Thinking ◽

Dialectical Materialism ◽

Common Word ◽

Peaceful Coexistence ◽

Current Time ◽

The Common Good ◽

The Common ◽

State Of Affairs

A crisis is a call for change and creative thinking that initiates a dialectics of thought and action. Also, the challenge for nations as well as individuals in crisis is to figure out which parts of their identities are already functioning well and do not need changing, and which parts are no longer working and do need changing. Indeed, Muslim thought today needs the courage to recognize what must be changed in order to deal with the new circumstances. But, at the same time, Muslim scholars need to draw a line and stress the elements that are so fundamental to the faith and culture of Islam that they refuse to be changed. This state of affairs we call dialectical spiritualism, as opposed to Marxist „dialectical materialism“. It is time for humanity to meet the Zeitgeist, „Spirit of the Age“, which is „the Spirit of Peace“ among religions and nations across the globe. History, past and present, is not void of good examples of accords, charters, declarations and commitments to peaceful coexistence between religions and nations from the Medina Charter (622), the Magna Carta Libertatum (1215), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Nostra Aetate (1965), the Declaration of European Muslims (2005), the Common Word Between Us and You (2007), the Marrakesh Declaration (2016), the Alliance of Virtue for the Common Good (2018), the Declaration of Human Fraternity (2019) to the Mecca Charter (2019). All these initiatives, past and present, promote the idea of „the Spirit of Peace“ of all times, but this current time has the biggest need of all times for the Zeitgeist, „Spirit of the Age“, which is the „Spirit of Peace and Tolerance“. This paper attempts to explain this need from a Muslim perspective with a comparison with other initiatives.

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The “Common Word,” Development, and Human Rights: African and Catholic Perspectives

Muslim and Christian Understanding ◽

10.1057/9780230114401_16 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 201-218

Author(s):

Joseph M. Isanga

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Common Word ◽

The Common

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The things that make for peace: The purpose, promise, and peril of interfaith engagement

Review & Expositor ◽

10.1177/0034637316688456 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (1) ◽

pp. 71-80

Author(s):

Ken Sehested

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Human Rights ◽

Large Scale ◽

Religious Tradition ◽

The United States ◽

Common Word ◽

Religious Identities ◽

The Arab Spring ◽

Jewish Intellectuals ◽

Made In

In the early weeks of 2011, during the Arab Spring uprising, Egyptian blogger Nevine Zaki posted a photograph from Cairo’s Tahrir Square. It showed a group of people bowing in the traditional style of Muslim prayer, surrounded by other people standing hand-in-hand, facing outward, as a wall of protection against hostile pro-government forces. Zaki affixed this caption: “A picture I took yesterday of Christians protecting Muslims during their prayers.” Similar scenes, some ancient, some as recent as yesterday’s newspaper, can be referenced in numerous ways with a variety of religious identities. No religious tradition can claim a monopoly on compassionate courage, yet such stories are rarely headlined. This article will review some of the progress made in interfaith collaboration on issues of justice, peace, and human rights, beginning with a review of organizational breakthrough statements, like “Dabru Emet,” a document from Jewish intellectuals and rabbis affirming that “Jews and Christians worship the same God,” and “A Common Word Between Us and You,” by leading Islamic scholars and clerics, followed by multiple responses from Christian bodies. With these as evidence of closer interfaith orbits on a large scale, we then examine the purpose, promise and pitfalls of interfaith collaboration on the ground in regions and communities, especially in the United States.

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