Free Republic

DAKAR (Reuters) - World Muslim leaders on Friday condemned extremism and terrorism as incompatible with Islam and proposed a high-level international meeting to promote a "dialogue of civilizations" with the Christian world. Leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents 1.5 billion Muslims from across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made the "Dakar Declaration" after a two-day summit in Senegal's capital. "We continue to strongly condemn all forms of extremism and dogmatism which are incompatible with Islam, a religion of moderation and peaceful coexistence," the declaration said. "We believe that it is important to plan...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani Taliban fighters battling government forces in the northwest said Sunday they are ready for dialogue with the winners of last week's election, and called on the new leadership to abandon President Pervez Musharraf's war on terror. The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, which will lead the new government, called for an end to military operations against insurgents in another restive area — the southwestern province of Baluchistan where the Afghan government believes the leadership of the Afghan Taliban may be hiding. U.S. officials are concerned about the future of Pakistan's role in the war...

We hear a lot about the subject of terrorism today. This has been the case for mainstream America – and the world – since the horrific attacks of September 11th, 2001. Each night on the news, as if by the networks’ design, there are the obligatory stories about a car bombing or a suicide attack, perhaps a fifteen second shot of the aftermath, a condescending, concerned look from the anchor and then a commercial. “We’ll be right back with another story about Britney Spears’ crotch, right after this!” That the single biggest threat to our nation has become B-Roll news...

Columbia University created quite a stir this week by having Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad address members of their student body. In some respects, it was more of a stir than University President Lee Bollinger had bargained for. Columbia wanted attention and passion. They got it in spades. However self-serving and sensationalistic Columbia’s motives may have been, an argument has been put forward that the invitation is valid. Today, the Wall Street Journal described the reasoning that would justify a dialogue with the anti-American ideologue under the belief that "even the enemies of reason cannot be the enemies of reason. Even...

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI delivered today to the members of the Catholic-Orthodox Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue. * * * Dear Brothers in Christ, It is with great joy that I welcome you, the members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, on the occasion of your fourth plenary meeting. Through you, I gladly extend fraternal greetings to my Venerable Brothers, the Heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, His Holiness Patriarch Zakka I Iwas, His Holiness...

Ahead of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's departure for Israel and other Middle Eastern states this weekend, she rejected proposals to open a diplomatic dialogue with Iran and Syria as a way to help stabilize Iraq. She repeated an offer, however, to meet with her Iranian counterpart "any time, anywhere" if the Islamic Republic were to accede to international demands to suspend its uranium enrichment program. As for Syria, she said President Bashar Assad would demand an easing of the US opposition to Syrian policies in Lebanon as his price for cooperation. Rice testified before the Senate Foreign Relations...

An extraordinary thing happened a week ago. Thirty-eight Muslim scholars and chief muftis, from across the Muslim world, jointly replied to the Pope's speech at Regensburg (and more have associated their names with this document, since). It was presented to the Vatican's envoy at Amman; the full text in English is available through the Islamica magazine website, the Catholic website, Chiesa, and elsewhere. I look through the list of signatories, and they are a "who's who" of the learned leaders of a faith that has always aspired to be led by its most learned. --snip--The signatories renounced and condemned violence...

Pope Benedict says Christians cannot allow their beliefs and identity to be diluted for the sake of dialogue with other religions. The question of how much dialogue Catholics should have with other religions has become a point of debate in the Church since the Pontiff made controversial comments about Islam a month ago. "We have to remember that this identity of ours calls for strength, clarity, and courage in the world in which we live," he told pilgrims and tourists at his weekly general audience. Some Catholics feel they have compromised too much of their Christian identity in the four...

From the Vatican to the Pentagon, goodwill gestures offered to the Muslim world too often blow up in the West’s collective face. The nicer we are to them, the harsher they are to us. The olive branch Pope Benedict XVI extended to Muslims is obscured by the smoke that has billowed since his address at Bavaria’s Regensburg University. The pope cited a conversation between “an educated Persian” and the 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus. They discussed, the pope said September 7, “the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.” He then quoted Paleologus who said: “Show...

Recently, I posted a piece – "Jihad This!" – in which I stated that the time for political correctness had long since passed and that, at least so far as I was concerned, America's entire Muslim population was suspect. For one thing, large numbers of them continued to wire funds to terrorist organizations even after 9/11, and instead of speaking out against their fellow Islamics or placing a reward on Osama bin Laden's head, they bellyache about racial profiling. Frankly, I expected that a lot of people were going to take me to task for denouncing millions of our fellow...

The violent Muslim reaction to Pope Benedict's reference to Muhammad involves far more than the issue of freedom of speech. The ultimate issue is one of theological truth on the one hand, and the true nature of Islam on the other. Pope Benedict's "indirect" disparagement of Muhammad--who was will denigrated by St. Thomas Aquinas, the touchstone of Roman Catholicism--is by definition a disparagement of Islam. Be this as it may, the Pope now calls for "dialogue." When Islam substitutes dialogue for the sword it will cease to be Islam. Islamic leaders from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad have ever declared war on...

City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. said a recent push to force the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scouts Council to denounce the national organization's antigay policy had nothing to do with his own homosexuality. "My own sexuality, my own sexual orientation, has never been hidden and never played into my decision," Diaz said in an interview yesterday with The Inquirer. "It has, perhaps, made me more sensitive to the issues." Diaz said he sent another letter yesterday morning seeking a meeting with William T. Dwyer III, council chief executive officer and president. Diaz, the city's first openly gay solicitor and...

Episcopal boredom http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50644 http://tinyurl.com/p3s8y Posted: June 15, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Hans Zeiger Let me see if I can capture the mood at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio. The main thing about it is the generation. It is a gathering, chiefly, of baby boomers on the older end of their cohort. If they preceded the boom, they at least participated in the '60s. I half expected the long hair and dope to flow with the crowds that came yesterday to hear the debates about homosexuality and the consequently precarious relations of the Episcopal...

Lorena Solorio remembers her younger brother teasing her as a child, telling her he was better than she was. Born in the United States, he was a citizen. Brought to the country in the trunk of a car, she was not. ``I couldn't understand why we had to sneak in,'' she said Sunday. Now an employee of Catholic Charities of San Jose and a U.S. citizen, Solorio works with many children who are in the country illegally. As the national debate over illegal immigration continues to swirl, she said, she sees in those children the same confusion she felt as...

A meeting of civic, business and government leaders from both sides of the border yesterday was intended to foster economic integration of San Diego County and Baja California. But participants in the Forum Fronterizo soon found themselves addressing a very different topic: illegal immigration and the proposal for a new border fence. “Building a wall is an anachronism,” said Jessie J. Knight Jr., president and chief executive of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Nobody can possibly believe that this is the solution. . . . There are other ways to ensure security.” The Forum Fronterizo, sponsored by the...

There's no helping you. This site is now just a diversion -- like a train wreck. This site is inherently for and about raving egomaniacs, and Jim's site policies -- which amount to excluding reality and actual dialogue in favor of political/militaristic pornography -- is conducive to cognitive dissonance, which at the times your worldview is threatened leads you into psychotic breaks (on the political cognitive plane, that is, and just maybe in other realms too). Not to mention that your baseline politics is based in mythology about American demographics, science, economics, ethics etc. You spoonfeed each other in the...

At a party in Washington, I once listened as a clueless couple, high-powered liberals both, descanted on their desire to know "more blacks and gays." An African-American child happened to be sitting on the porch with us. It was a golden opportunity for the couple to realize half their goal, but they ignored her. Why not simply speak to the girl and get the ball rolling? I wondered. But now I realize that the pair was an ideal candidate to participate in one of the Ford Foundation's "Difficult Dialogues." The program, which was announced earlier this month, actually pays colleges...

Essay Contest on POWs of the Japanese US-JAPAN DIALOGUE ON POWS, INC., a California non-profit organization, is pleased to announce that it will hold its first essay writing contest. The purpose of this contest is to promote understanding and dialogue among/between college students in Japan and the United States on the history of American POWs of the Japanese during WWII. We look forward to receiving many submissions from both countries. Two winners, one from Japan and the other from the United States, will win a free trip to Phoenix, Arizona, where the annual convention of American Defenders of Bataan and...

Britain will lead a drive to have Iran referred to the UN security council, with the possibility of sanctions being imposed if the newly elected hardline president does not stop uranium enrichment or restart negotiations with Europe and America. Reflecting the level of concern about Iran's intentions, foreign secretary Jack Straw was due to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday on the sidelines of the United Nations summit to try to resolve the stand-off. Mr Straw was making a joint approach with French prime minister Dominique de Villepin and German foreign minister Joschka Fischer. The Europeans have been pursuing the diplomatic...

TEHRAN, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Back in 1968 Mick Jagger had plenty of "Sympathy for the Devil", but his first wife Bianca is far more critical of "The Great Satan" and fears U.S. unwillingness to talk to Iran could lead to conflict. Rights campaigner Jagger, the Council of Europe's goodwill ambassador, has travelled to Iran with a group called "U.S. Academics for Peace", seeking to ensure the Islamic Republic does not become the next Iraq. The group argues the mudslinging rhetoric branding the United States as "The Great Satan" and Iran as part of the "axis of evil" is one...

SCIENCE AND RELIGION- AN EMERGING INTERDISCIPLINARY SUBJECT By Dr Dildar Ahmed “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” Galileo Galilei Abstract ‘Science and religion’ is an emerging interdisciplinary subject. Many institutions in the West are already engaged in research on various topics of science and religion having historical and contemporary importance and are conducting courses leading to higher degrees. There are many areas which are common between science and religion and it is realized that the interrelationship of science and...

Catholic University hosts sacrilegious display against the Blessed Mother, offending students, faculty and Catholics nationwide Something extremely alarming and shameful occurred at the University of Dayton, where Our Blessed Mother was depicted in an exhibit amid pictures of prostitutes and pornography.1 The sacrilegious display, "Heartlands," by Derek A. Cracco, an assistant professor of art at the University of Alabama, was on public display in the Rike Center Gallery of the University of Dayton from February 22 to March 11. Ranking among the ten largest Catholic universities in the country, the University of Dayton, founded by the Society of Mary in...

Pro-Life Leaders Seek Face to Face Meeting with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Begin Dialogue about Abortion and Abstinence Tue Feb 8,10:12 AM ET To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, 202-547-1735 or 540-538-4741 (cell) News Advisory: The Christian Defense Coalition will hold a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 11 a.m., outside of the Russell Office Building on the corner of Constitution and 1st St. NE. The group will then go to Sen. Clinton's office to schedule a meeting and present the senator with a letter discussing reasons why a...

21. Januar 2005 F.A.Z. Weekly. The week of President George W. Bush's second inauguration began with a report that disturbed German politicians inside and outside the national government. The story, written by the prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh for the New Yorker magazine, said on Monday that the Bush administration had been conducting secret spying missions inside Iran since mid-2004. The story said the missions were designed to gather intelligence on declared and suspected nuclear, chemical and missile sites. These targets ”could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids,” Hersh wrote. In Germany, the report triggered criticism from politicians...

why on earth would Kerry tell the Council on Foreign Relations in December that, if elected, he would abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for the "years of mistakes by the Bush administration"? In an article in the March issue of Insight magazine, author Kenneth R. Timmerman described the meeting: "Kerry promised to spend the first 100 days of his administration traveling the world to denounce his predecessor, apologize for his ‘radically wrong' policy, and seek ‘cooperation and compromise` with friend and foe alike." Timmerman cited a seven-page e-mail, "confirmed as authentic...

In 1964, the first accord between the Holy See and a communist government was signed. And the myth of dialogue was born. A book by Cardinal Casaroli, published after his death, dismantles it. The same dilemma arises today: resistance, or surrender? ROMA - One September morning forty years ago, a prelate left the Vatican for Budapest. On the 15th of that month in 1964, he signed in the capital of Hungary the first in a series of accords between the Holy See and the communist regimes of the East. The man was Agostino Casaroli (in the photo with Ronald Reagan),...

BRUSSELS, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Canada's foreign minister slammed Tehran on Tuesday for turning a dialogue over a Canadian citizen who died in Iranian custody into "a farce", but added that unilateral sanctions would probably not be effective. Pierre Pettigrew also said there was no improvement in the human rights situation in Iran, and that Canada may press its allies to consider joint pressure on Tehran. The Canadian government has accused Iran's hardline courts of covering up the true circumstances of Iranian-born photographer Zahra Kazemi's death last year in order to protect senior judiciary officials implicated in her murder. "We've...

With bloody images of Muslims and Westerners battling in Iraq and elsewhere on the nightly news, it may seem like odd timing to unveil a big-budget Hollywood epic depicting the ferocious fight between Christians and Muslims over Jerusalem in the Crusade of the 12th century. 20th Century Fox is planning a release next year for ''Kingdom of Heaven,'' a $130 million production by the Oscar-nominated director Ridley Scott, shot in Morocco with hundreds of extras, horses and elaborate costumes. The script, by William Monahan, is based on real characters of the three-century Crusades, including Balian of Ibelin, a Crusader knight...

Pope John Paul II encouraged inter-religious dialogue as a "sure basis for peace," as he met on May 15 in a private audience with the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who were gathered in Rome for their plenary meeting. The Holy Father told the members that-- as they mark the 40th anniversary of the Pontifical Council's establishment-- that their work was a product of "the atmosphere of unity and hope that marked Vatican II so clearly." He predicted that the “coming years will see the Church even more committed to respond to the great challenges of...

Among Sen. John Kerry's top fund-raisers are three Iranian-Americans who have been pushing for dramatic changes in U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. Most prominent among them is Hassan Nemazee, 54, an investment banker based in New York. Nominated to become U.S. ambassador to Argentina by President Bill Clinton in 1999, Nemazee eventually withdrew his nomination after a former partner raised allegations of business improprieties. Nemazee was a major Clinton donor, giving $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 1996 election cycle and attending at least one of the famous White House fund-raising coffees. In 2001,...

My Friend, Islam: The “Dialogue At All Costs” of Pope Wojtyla Here are the criticisms of the pope that many cardinals and bishops have in mind, but do not make public. They’re found in a book written by a scholar of Islam who knows these criticisms well. by Sandro Magister ROMA – Jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea, Italy is a natural landing spot for the wave of Islamic migration into Europe. The response of the Italian Church – and of the bishop of Rome, the pope – to this growing Islamic pressure is therefore indicative of the more general...

Azar Nafisi reveals the decadence of studying literature in Tehran In a house in Tehran in the 1990s eight women were talking about literature. Someone was thinking of Jane Austen and the famous opening of Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Since the Iranian authorities had decreed that girls could be married off at the age of nine, one of the women in the group proposed a local variation: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Muslim man, regardless...

Does anyone have any experience of http://www.politalk.com , purporting to host "Thoughtful and Respectful Discussion on Important Issues of Public Policy" ? They are embarking on "nine week (June 11 - August 27) interactive tour of politics and public opinion in Europe and their implications for the transatlantic relationship." Blimey. I got an email about this which essentially told me to sign up and tell dem Americans what I thought I was (the presumption, on the mailing list I ended up on I don't know how, was that would be gross anti-americanism)

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Code: ZE03070305 Date: 2003-07-03 A Theology That Omits Conversion Betrays the Faith, Says John Paul II Appeals to Indian Bishops to Surmount Relativist Explanations of Religious Pluralism VATICAN CITY, JULY 3, 2003 (Zenit.org).- A theology that does not invite conversion to Christ -- or that considers all religions as equal -- empties Christianity of its meaning, warns John Paul II. "To bear witness to Jesus Christ is the supreme service which the Church offers to the peoples of Asia," the Pope said today to a group of bishops of the ecclesiastical provinces...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Headlines surfacing in the secular press regarding a recent meeting of evangelical leaders to discuss Christian-Muslim dialogue imply that the group rebuked fellow evangelicals such as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jerry Vines for so-called inflammatory comments they have made about Muslims. However, a copy of the three-page "Guidelines for Christian-Muslim Dialogue" written by Institute of Religion and Democracy Vice President Alan Wisdom and released at the meeting make no mention of Graham, Falwell, Robertson or Vines. According to a news release from the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which co-sponsored the May 7 meeting in Washington...

ICONOCLAST DAILY NOTEBOOK.... When Has Dialogue Ever Defeated Evil? February 7, 2003: You see it on the news almost every evening. It might be an aging hippie, a disaffected college student majoring in "undecided," or an Episcopal bishop overwrought by a lifetime of denying the divinity of Christ. They stand before the camera and generally accuse President Bush, in his prosecution of the War on Terror, of being (1) a war criminal, (2) beholden to "big oil," (3) systematically destroying the Constitution of the United States, or (4) some combination of (1), (2) and (3). Then they almost always end...

FOREWORD The present study is concerned with the complex phenomenon of “New Age” which is influencing many aspects of contemporary culture. The study is a provisional report. It is the fruit of the common reflection of the Working Group on New Religious Movements, composed of staff members of different dicasteries of the Holy See: the Pontifical Councils for Culture and for Interreligious Dialogue (which are the principal redactors for this project), the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. These reflections are offered primarily to those engaged in pastoral work so that they...

IRAQ AND THE LIBERAL NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES VISIT J. Grant Swank, Jr., POB l984, Windham ME 04062 Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham ME They were there for only four days — four days to do research on an entire country’s spiritual, political and psychological state? Four days? One can hardly get off and on a plane with meals and rest in between in four days? Maybe visit a zoo or take in a sunset; but stay only four days in a country and then leave it as experts in the field? Such hubris. And that’s only for starters. There’s...

This article was originally printed in America, Oct. 14, 2002, and is reprinted with permission of America Press, Inc. Copyright © 2002 All Rights Reserved. For subscription information, call 1-800-627-9533 or visit www.americamagazine.org Covenant and Mission By Avery Dulles On Aug. 12, 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Web site published a story to the effect that the Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, in dialogue with the National Council of Synagogues, had just issued a document, Reflections on Covenant and Mission, stating that "targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity" is "no longer theologically acceptable in the...

Interview with Father Maurice Borrmans, Expert on Islam ROME, NOV. 25, 2002 (ZENIT.org-Avvenire).- Dialogue between Muslims and Christians, not regarded as a strong point, has been hampered even more since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to an expert on the subject. More than ever, the dialogue requires well-prepared individuals who can understand the Muslims, Father Maurice Borrmans says in the following interview. Father Borrmans, a missionary in the Arab world for 20 years, has been for a long-time consultor of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He now teaches Islamic law and Muslim spirituality at the Pontifical Institute of...

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea agreed Wednesday to resolve international concerns over its nuclear weapons program through dialogue, but stopped short of meeting a U.S. demand to immediately abandon its nuclear weapons program, according to South Korean media reports. "In order to guarantee peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the South and North will actively cooperate in resolving all the issues, including the nuclear issue, through dialogue," said the agreement, which was announced early Wednesday and reported in pool accounts by South Korean journalists.

TEHRAN, Sept 25 (AFP) - Iran's government reiterated Wednesday that it was ready and willing to reopen dialogue with the United States, but only if Washington took the critical first step. "The possibility of re-establishing ties depends on the US making the first step," government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh told reporters. He also emphasised that any contacts would have to be under "equal terms, the same conditions that govern our relations with other countries and the European Union." Ramezanzadeh asserted that it was therefore up to Washington to enact a fundamental change in its policy on Iran, saying: "The Americans should...

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz called upon Washington on Monday to open a dialogue with Baghdad, insisting that UN sanctions were the cause of the Iraqi people's suffering. "Iraq's position is based on the principle of dialogue as a way of solving problems between countries," Aziz told a visiting delegation from a US anti-sanctions group, the Quaker/American Friends Service Committee, AFP said. "The United States' refusal to engage in a dialogue (with Iraq) and its insistence on pursuing aggression and perpetuating the (UN) embargo are the cause of the Iraqi people's suffering," said Aziz, quoted by the official INA...