Free Republic

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder congratulated Cardinal Jorge María Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, on his election as Pope Francis I on Wednesday. "Pope Francis I is no stranger to us. In recent years he attended many interfaith events co-organized by the WJC and our regional affiliate, the Latin American Jewish Congress," Lauder wrote, adding he had met Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 2008. Lauder praised the new pope as "an experienced man, someone who is known for his open-mindedness ... a man of dialogue, a man who is able to build bridges with other faiths". "We...

Thursday, July 8, 2010 A former congressman pleaded guilty Wednesday to serving as an unregistered agent in Washington for a Missouri-based Islamic charity that the federal government said had ties to international terrorism. It was an odd outcome for Mark D. Siljander, who said he wanted to help bridge the gulf between Muslims and Christians. A Republican who attained one of Michigan's congressional seats from 1981 to 1987 with assistance from the Moral Majority, Siljander was outspoken about conservative social issues. Siljander confirmed in a Kansas City, Mo., court that he contacted members of Congress in an effort to lift...

Cardinal Koch's speech in Jerusalem

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and a delegation of rabbis from Judea and Samaria met with Ephraim Brigade commander Colonel Ron Kahane of the Ephraim Brigade on Wednesday. At the meeting Kahane and his officers told the rabbis about the incident at the Ephraim Brigade headquarters, where some 50 angry youth clashed with soldiers and threw Molotov cocktails and stones at IDF vehicles after hearing rumors demolition orders were to be carried out in Jewish communities Monday evening. In a separate incident Kahane was injured on Monday when stones were thrown at his vehicle. At the meeting the rabbis shared...

The Korans that were to be burned in a protest by a independent fringe church in Forida, are now in the hands of a local Fredericksburg Pastor. The Rev.Pat Mahoney hopes to distribute the Korans to churches for use in "interfaith dialogue." Can interfaith dialogue be a tool used by Islamists to gain legitimacy? Are there Biblical examples of "interfaith dialogue"? What are your thoughts? Link to article below:

Oct 13,2008 The Nation -- The elections in Iran are nearly a year away, but it's encouraging to see the emerging possibility of a new bid for the presidency by former President Mohammad Khatami. Last week, he hinted that he's considering running against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the nutball whose support lies mainly in the paramilitary Basij force and elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Can Khatami ju-jitsu the all-powerful Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and his election-rigging Guardian Council? Can Khatami loom so large that even Khamenei might choose to support him over Ahmadinejad? Might Khamenei decide to back Khatami as...

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: "People feel uncomfortable talking about racial issues out of fear that if they express things they will be characterized in a way that's not fair."

The Mormon Chapter of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy is organizing its 2010 conference to address issues surrounding the relationship between Latter-day Saints and the Abrahamic traditions. Recent events have demonstrated the Church’s interest in participating more actively in interfaith dialogue and LDS leaders have encouraged their members to engage more directly in productive exchanges that are aimed primarily at the cultivation of mutual understanding. The conference is designed to explore various perspectives and methods for thinking about Latter-day Saints among the faiths and cultures of world. Its aim will be to connect theology with practice in allowing space for...

The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the umbrella body of French Jewry, will not renew dialogue with French Muslim groups that equated Operation Cast Lead in Gaza with the Holocaust, the group's vice president, Meyer Habib, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. Palestinian supporters protest against the Israeli operation in Gaza, in Berlin. Similar protests were held in France. During Operation Cast Lead, some Muslim organizers of pro-Palestinian demonstrations equated Israel's actions with the Nazi Holocaust, and even carried banners that read "death to Jews."

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...

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...