Let me start by sharing the good news for all of you after welcoming our friend Dr. Brayn Hart, the great scholar, Head of the Christian Education Department at the University of Berlin. We chaired together the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Conference.
He exerted great and sincere effort in working on rapprochement and convergence between the two faiths and heavenly messages: Islam and Christianity. After three days of dialogue, the conference came out with a joint statement. Now, I will read to you this worldly, heavenly and global statement
In the presence of the second partner. In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. The joint statement based on an invitation from the Christian Peace Conference. About twenty scholars from the Christian and Muslim clergy from six countries met in Prague, the capital of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
To have a dialogue on religion and peace and they announced the following joint statement: We are the participants in this meeting belonging to two heavenly religions. We agree on believing in the One and Only God, the Creator of the earth and the heavens.
We also agree there is no god but Allah and we bear witness, as followers of Jesus Christ, the Messenger of God, and of Prophet Muhammad, the Messenger of God, that we believe in Allah and in the messages sent by God which carry wisdom and love.
Under the leadership of the Grand Mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic Dr. Ahmad Kuftaro and Prof. Dr. Kamp Bernhard, Chair of Old Testament in the Department of Theology at Humboldt University in the German Democratic Republic, the participants discussed the basic principles of the Christian-Islamic dialogue about religion
And peace in the Middle East. Based on this common ground, we agree to exert more effort to work together with greater concentration to achieve fraternity between our two religions, guarantee peace and deepen brotherly love all over the world.
At the beginning, the Secretary-General of the Host Christian Peace Conference, Pastor Milovski denoted that the Christians and Muslims living side by side in many regions of the world have a special role of building trust and achieving peace. The Prague Dialogue aims at contributing throughout the shared responsibility for peace
And to help achieve the great mission of humanity in creating peace, justice and religious brotherhood. Dr. Milovski appreciated the bold initiative of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to stop the nuclear experiments from her side throughout a real gradual program
Presented by the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev for paving the way for humanity to a new century without nuclear weapons. The two co-chairs of the meeting: the Grand Mufti, Dr. Kuftaro and Dr. Brayn Hart tackled in their
Main lectures the religious motives of peace efforts in the Middle East from an Islamic and Christian points of view. Grand Mufti, Dr. Kuftaro said that the moral and religious backwardness of humanity accompanied with the scientific advancement at the same time is one of the causes
Of the current danger of the nuclear war that threatens to cause the annihilation of the world, God forbid. Conversely, the Christian-Muslim fraternity could be an important step to overcome this crisis and to jointly prevent the outbreak of a nuclear war.
Therefore, Dr. Kuftaro beseeches God to inspire all of us who stand on one rock and in one row and worship the One and Only God to strengthen our fraternity and by doing so, we contribute to achieve peace in the world.
Since this dialogue is held in a socialist country, it can achieve success and prove its effective contribution in the struggle against colonialism, imperialism and war. Professor Dr. Brayn Hart stressed in his lecture on the importance of exchanging our different religious
Experiences and traditions in a spirit of readiness, understanding and fraternity. And we should act accordingly to overcome hostility, war and persecution. Dr. Brayn Hart added that if we want to reach the 21st century, we have to remember
Our mutual responsibility to achieve peace which is also the duty of religion as well as that of the mind endowed by the Creator to every human. Another mutual responsibility includes revealing pretexts disguised by religion of political disputes. As a result of the growing of practical cooperation,
The mutual points studied in the dialogue might be brought to life and might open, within a brotherly and friendly framework, a new page in the history of religion for the religious partner and brother. (A historical page which paves the way for religious and global fraternity.)
All the participants in the discussions stressed in their speeches on the points specified in the two lectures that believing in God and the heavenly messages of Prophets Jesus and Muhammad and giving precedence for peace are inseparable. Peace and faith shouldn’t be seperated
From each other and that matches up with the aspirations of the peoples and all the forces of peace. All the parties of the dialogue agreed that religions have a special responsibility in solving the problem of the Middle East and securing the right of the Palestinians
To live in a state of their own is an indispensable condition. Tal’at Taj eddin, the Grand Mufti of the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics, stressed on the importance of repelling all the attempts to take religion as a justification for the illegitimate Zionist expansive policy.
It is important to gather all the forces to confront the persecuting powers in order for this planet to be a real homeland for all people. At the end, the Grand Mufti Dr. Kuftaro expressed the conviction of all the participants
That the Christian-Muslim meeting serves the bilateral rapprochement and in-depth understanding between the two parties. The two parties must continue their cooperation with God’s help to strengthen the common belief and promote peace especially on the part of the believers in Islam and Christianity. The necessity of establishing
Cooperation becomes clearer in front of our eyes day by day throughout the danger of arms race on all humanity. This is a clear symptom of a deadly disease, humanity doesn’t know up till today how to be cured from it.
However, there is a cure for it and we hope by God’s grace to be the physicians who present that medicine represented in stressing love, mercy and global fraternity by virtue of Muslim-Christian cooperation. Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro and Dr. Carl Bryan Hart,
The professor in The Department of Theology in Humboldt University in German Democratic Republic. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
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