|
Fadlullah: We call the United States and Europe to scrutinize the phenomenon of renewed terrorism in their countries |
His Eminence, the Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, received an American Christian clerical delegation that embraces a number of prominent heads of churches in USA, presided by "Berten Waggoner", the Head of Vineyards churches community. This community includes ten thousand churches around the world. The delegation also included a number of archbishops and preachers, writers and university professors, lecturers at "YALE" University and the World Faith Dialogue Center, in addition to Professor Karl Mediaris, Head of "International initiative" and "The Ends of the Earth" communities. The delegation was accompanied by Mr. Sameer Kreidiyyeh.
The meeting addressed the common grounds among religions, especially those between Islam and Christianity, as well as the responsibility of scholars and intellectuals on both sides to set up a world view of peace. His Eminence, Sayyed Fadlullah, addressed the delegation, pointing to the many common values that exist between Muslims and Christians, with these values being highlighted by both Islam and Christianity, and adopted by the two missions' spiritual bases and conceptual systems.
His Eminence, the Sayyed, welcomed the delegation saying: "We meet on the basis of love, because love is what connects us with Allah. Allah loves us, so He created us, and gave us all what we need for life, and granted us what we need in ourselves, and wanted us to love Him out of belief and obedience. Therefore, the human love that set out from the divine love is capable of achieving peace for all humankind, while hatred, grudge and fanaticism do not yield but aggression, destruction and murder around the world."
His Eminence, the Sayyed, also pointed to the Islamic and Christian common grounds as to theology, noting that we both believe in one God, even though we disagree over how God is conceived. As far as Jesus (p.) is concerned, he represents the miracle of creation. He is God's spirit and word and a mercy for mankind. Just as God created Adam without a father or a mother, so he did by creating Prophet Issa (p.) without a father. We all sanctify Virgin Marry (a.s.) whom God accepted to serve and put in the care of Zakariya. The angels heralded her with the birth of Jesus (p.). We, just like you, believe in the "Besharah" [the glad tidings of the advent of Jesus] and we believe that Virgin Mary is a model for chastity and purity and is one of the common aspects between Islam and Christianity. We believe that Allah lifted Jesus (p.) to Heaven and we believe in the judgment day when people will be held accountable for their actions.
He added: On the other side, we believe in dialogue with all those who disagree with us, and we recognize the other with whom we want to cooperate in our common issues, and with whom we want to hold a dialogue over the controversial issues. The Holy Quran has taught us to pursue the path of dialogue with the others, and asked us not to accuse the others of being wrong in advance. The Quran has taught us to eliminate any subjective characters for the sake of dialogue, and to seek the truth which both of us attempt to discover, in accordance with the Quranic verse: "And most surely we or you are on a right way or in manifest error." (Saba: 24)
Islam has also underscored the importance of reason, and told us that God is sensed by reason and that reason can lead us to the secrets of the universe and life and opens our horizons for progress and growth for the best of mankind. Therefore, we agree with the West over the priority of education in building culture and progress at the level of the march of mankind. But we disagree with the western administrations over the violence and occupation they imposed on us and the terrorism with which they labeled our peoples. Hence, we used to say that while it is prohibited for us to assault others, regardless of their identities, whether them being Christians or Jewish among others, we cannot offer a bouquet of flowers for those who slam rockets at us and hurl smart and non-smart bombs at us.
The Sayyed also said that the Bush Administration has managed to nurture terrorism climates in the world in an unprecedented manner, which led to anti-American sentiments, although we have always tried to confirm that the American people are different from their administration and that we want to establish friendly ties with these people. We hope that the Obama Administration would take lessons from the failed and ruinous experiences generated by the previous administration in the region and the entire world, especially in light of the catastrophic backlash on the global economy.
We feel at ease when we listen to a new American discourse that the United States will not engage in preemptive wars upon the recommendation of the CIA reports. But we expected a discourse on US endeavors to establish a world peace strategy and preemptive initiatives to defend global peace, because the experiences of ruinous wars will bring about catastrophic consequences on everyone, namely on the United States which seeks by any means to regain its imperial legacy.
The Sayyed added that talking about terrorism is emotive and killing and destroying without drafting a real definition of terrorism is double terrorism. He called on the Americans and the Europeans to thoroughly scrutinize the phenomenon of their renewed terrorism, whether in Ireland or Germany, or the terrorism of the mafias or the organized crime perpetrated in the United States and some European countries recently.
Sayyed Fadlullah also raised the need to fight terrorism through identifying its reasons and working to eliminate any pretexts leading to it. He called for distinguishing between the resistance movements that seek to liberate their lands, and those who kill innocent people in cold blood. He stressed the need to repudiate Israel's terrorism and prevent it from extending to blow off the region and the world.
The Sayyed called on the western administrations - that punish whoever it accuses of anti-Semitism – to punish Israel because it attacks us and our people and has occupied our lands, knowing that we are Semites. Israel is at the highest levels of anti-Semitism. He also laid emphasis to the fact that we have no problem with Judaism as a religion, but our problem lies with Israel which annexed a whole nation from its land. He pointed out that we refuse oppression, whether being against the Jews as happened in Europe, or against the Palestinians and the Arabs and the Muslims. We are also against the oppressed who avenge from nations that have never oppressed them, but have rather embraced and dealt with them upon the values of good and forgiveness.
He concluded that we support freedom and justice, and if the United States adopts the course of freedom and respects the freedom of the people and supports justice, we will be very close to peace, because we will all be working towards this goal that protects mankind and establishes good and love for human beings.