“You and I are brothers, and you and I are from the same city, the same country; we speak the same language and share the same history” — Christian pastor

Every Ramadan, an Iraqi Christian preacher returns from the Netherlands to his hometown of Mosul. He celebrates the holy Islamic month there to promote understanding between Muslims and Christians. Voice of America’s Kawa Omer has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.

To watch the video at source, please click Voice of America.

_____________________

The Aga Khan on Moving Christian-Muslim Relations Forward for a Better World

“Our histories have taught us the value of dialogue, and that rarely, indeed very rarely, does anything good come out of conflict. Our world view is to engage with the problem of social exclusion in our societies and to contribute to building bridges across faiths and across nations, by linking diverse parts of the world” — the Aga Khan

“I have no doubt that for you, whose historical roots are in the Christian world, it is as painful as it is for us Muslims, with our roots in the East, to watch an increasingly deep gulf growing between significant parts of our respective worlds. We cannot stand by as passive observers letting this gulf grow wider and wider, at the cost of future generations. If we have the will, which I am certain we share, we have the historical knowledge and the ethical foundations to move our world forward, to make it a better and more hopeful place, and to put an end to the storm of hatred which appears to be building up around us.

“Our histories have taught us the value of dialogue, and that rarely, indeed very rarely, does anything good come out of conflict. Our world view is to engage with the problem of social exclusion in our societies and to contribute to building bridges across faiths and across nations, by linking diverse parts of the world.

“We are concerned, and most rightly so, that there is poverty among our respective peoples, and we cannot stand by watching this inhuman indignity become a permanent part of our societies, of our generations of today and tomorrow. We must work together to develop an arsenal of peaceful weapons to attack this plight which blights our times, and to try to make sure that those who are marginalised today can be certain that we are not blind to them, that we will not let their future generations live in the same hopeless world in which they themselves are seeking, often only in despair, to survive.” — the Aga Khan, speaking at the Protocol of Co-operation Signing Ceremony between the Ismaili Imamat and the Government of Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal, December 19, 2005 (Read full speech HERE).

Date posted: March 29, 2024.

____________________