Moderate voices, respect called crucial to Catholic-Muslim dialogue

Published: 2006-03-24

NEWARK, N.J. (CNS) -- Mohamed El Filali, outreach director at the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, remembers the profound sadness he felt when he addressed an interfaith gathering in Montclair Sept. 12, 2001. His sorrow wasn't only because of the immediate, horrific tragedy of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon the day before. It was also because it took a world-shattering calamity to bring together people of different faiths. "Dialogue always needs to continue to build bridges of peace," he said in an interview with The Catholic Advocate, Newark archdiocesan newspaper. "We need to advance the cause of humanity. We must find ways to respect each other's beliefs and sacred places, otherwise the experience of life has no value." These days there are plenty of things for Catholics and Muslims to discuss: Pope Benedict XVI's scheduled visit to Turkey in November, a forthcoming document on interfaith marriage from the mid-Atlantic regional Muslim-Catholic dialogue group and the call of recent popes for Catholics to reach out to people of other faiths.

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