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to the Anglican Church
The Religious Authority Sayyid Muhammad Hussein
Fadlallah sent a letter of gratitude to the bishops of the Anglican
Church, following their call on the UK Government to apologize to
Muslims. Following is the text of the letter:
Your reverent, Bishops of the
honorable Anglican church
Dear Sirs
I have followed your latest statement in which you
called on the UK to apologize to Muslims and the Iraqi people for the
mistakes it made when it went along with the American policies in the
Middle East. I also appreciate its description of the obstacles the
hindered the development of the Middle East peoples, including the
establishment of the Israeli entity, the protection of oppressive
regimes in the region for their role in preserving the interests of
the Western governments at the expense of that of the region’s people.
As I appreciate your valuable initiative, I would
like to touch on the following points:
Firstly: Your statement reveals a profound
awareness of the severe crisis between Islam and the West, that the
colonial polices have aggravated through long decades.
Secondly: It springs from a free will independent
of that of the UK Government to the extent that it runs counter to the
Middle East policies of the government.
Thirdly: It points directly to the root cause of
the problem, by focusing on the obstacles that hindered the political
and civilizational development of the Middle East, as a result of the
establishment of the Israeli entity and the policies of emergency that
were adopted by the rulers who were supported for long decades by the
American and British administration.
Fourthly: It is one of the most important bold
initiatives that call things by their names, neglecting the national
or religious fanaticism that usually prevents such frankness.
Fifthly: It is so bold that it criticizes the
American President's interpretation of the Bible in a way that serves
his aggression on Iraq and the Muslim World.
And lastly: We appreciate the Anglican Church call
for dialogue between Islam and the West, and emphasize that this call,
although late, remains suitable to address previous mistakes, and to
institute a mutual approach to many issues of concern in the world to
both Muslims and Westerners, especially that of building a human
civilization that does not witness religious revolutions, and that
pressurizes the policies of hegemony of both the apostating Muslims or
the arrogant Westerners.
I would like to draw your attention to our
previous stands in which we called for humanistic and religious
dialogue that we had stated decades ago. Had this dialogue started
then, we would have saved ourselves and the peoples of the world a lot
of catastrophes, and prevented hot- headed people from executing
policies of hatred that call for destructing the most salient features
of modern civilization and that neglect the call of religions to
tolerance, mutual understanding and love, as well as the values of
freedom, dignity and mutual respect.
Duty calls on all the faithful, who call for a
healthy human environment that is based on all what the heavenly
religions have called for, to meet and reach an agreement on a charter
of honor based on religious and human values that will prevent those
who adopt policies of hatred ,whether Westerners or deviated Muslims,
from going too far. In this respect, I believe that they should
perhaps establish an international council for dialogue between
civilizations and religions that would act as a collective human and
humane conscience that would morally pressurize all those who wish
evil for man in the world, and that is independent from those who
pursue hegemony policies that would destruct the world.
The wise people in this ship, our earth, are called
on to meet to prevent the obsessed who wish to make a hole in it and
drawn us with the blood of all who are on board… This requires such
boldness as the one you showed in your statement, which we call for
completing it with practical and positive steps that emphasize the
values which all religions and civilized human values have in common.
Sayyed Fadlallah's office
Beirut : 25-8-1426H/29-9-2005 |