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| Europe |
| European Cardinal Calls for "Secularizing" Islam |
| 2004-11-28 |
| A leading European cardinal claimed that Islam could not integrate into Europe unless it makes a clear break between religion and state as Roman Catholicism went through after the French revolution. Belgium's Cardinal Godfried Danneels is one of a few Catholic churchmen tipped as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II. Danneels said in an interview with Reuters that Muslims should be ready to show more flexibility to interpret the Noble Qur'an. "I think, I hope that it is possible to create a European Islam which has gone through its own French Revolution. It can already be found here or there," he said in the interview, published by the Express India newspaper. Muslim scholars say Islam sees no separation between religion and life, believing that religion should be the common denominator in all the activities of daily life. "Islam requires that we live our whole life, every aspect of life in obedience to Allah. We are not part-time servants of Allah," said Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, the former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). "Our religion (Islam) is not against common sense rules and it recognizes that people of other religions and cultures also have a lot of good things and we can share with them those common values and cooperate with them," he said. "No Contradiction" Danneels argued though that Muslim communities in Europe should see the contradiction between following tenets of Islam and integration into western societies. "I think Islam should do that. Christianity did it, especially under the influence of the French Revolution. Apart from its negative aspects, there were also good things, like the separation of church and state," he said. There have been mounting European bids to allegedly reinterpret Islam on claims to help step up Muslim integration in the west. Major Swiss Christian groups have called for establishing a government-supervised institute to educate Muslim imams on the "liberal" lifestyle in western societies. Releasing a 20-point strategy to step up the Muslim integration into society, German integration minister Marieluise Beck said Tuesday, November23 , imams coming to Germany should have a knowledge of the German language and society. "Moderate" Islam Danneels, the archbishop for the Brussels-Mechelen region, also called on Muslims to adopt what he termed a "moderate" Islam that does not cover all social and economic aspects of life. "This is fundamental. It is very difficult to talk to a monolithic Islam, because that comes down to 'take it or leave it' and the accomplishments of European history, culture and social order are not really integrated in that," he said. He claimed that Islam should allow more flexible interpretation of its scriptures. "That is fundamental, the willingness of Islam to interpret its texts, the Qur'an in particular," Danneels said. Crusade Memory The prominent European archbishop suggested both Muslims and westerners overcome their past differences and thrash out new ideas on furthering understanding between both sides. "There are a lot of things which got stuck in the memory, for example of the Muslim communities -- even the memory of the Crusades is still very much alive," Danneels said. He warned against confusing religion and fundamentalism, which he called "a pathology of religion". "Whoever commits violence in the name of God... actually commits violence against God," he said. "Whoever hates in the name of God, actually hates God himself." Pope John Paul II on January17 , exhorted Christians, Muslims and Jews to bury the hatchet and work in tandem to rid the world of never-ending wars. However, in May 2004 a German newspaper reported that the Vatican has been pumping huge amounts of funds into a very influential institution of the Catholic Church to halt the spread of Islam across the world. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 GFL, Redbird. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-11-28 10:52:47 PM |