Lettre au Pape Benoît XVI – رسالة إلى البابا بندكت السادس عشر
1— Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
(Translation from Arabic)
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful,
“There is no good in most of their exchanges, but if one exhorts to a deed of charity or justice or conciliation between men. To him who does this, seeking the good pleasure of God, We shall soon give a reward of the highest value.” (Qur’an, An-Nisa — The Women, 4:114)
Your Holiness,
Muslims celebrated a few days ago the Hijri New Year, commemorating the emigration of Prophet Muhammad son of Abdullah — Peace & Prayers Be Upon Him — from Mecca to Medina. Christians will celebrate in a couple of days the Gregorian New Year commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, son of Mary — Peace & Prayers Be Upon Him. On this occasion we pray God to make of this New Year a year of justice, peace and prosperity for our two communities and for peoples all over the world.
Humanity goes through various moral, political, economic and financial crises, and is in the grip of a bleak climate of fear and insecurity. The fears of people are often exploited by irresponsible political, religious, media and cultural elites to acquire personal gain and narrow interests. Fears are then amplified and the alleged danger is crystallized in the person and the culture of the Other. This contribute to spread hatred and discord and to trigger conflict.
It is the duty of the wise men and women of all faiths to work in order to prevent these evils that threaten humanity, because even if they appear in a given country, they spread quickly in a world of shrunk distances, at the speed of Internet and cell phones. The mission of the elites endowed with intelligence, all around the world, is to work to resolve conflicts as they arise by dealing with their causes and consequences.
Your Holiness,
Muslims of Europe are the target in recent years of increasing aggression; their sacred symbols are desecrated, their beliefs are attacked and their freedom to practice or express their religion is restricted. The last episode of this aggression is the ban in Switzerland, last month, of the construction of minarets, following a popular initiative, through which the apostles of discord have done everything to amplify fears and arouse the passions and feelings of hatred against the fellow Muslim citizens, hence working to crack the national cohesion known in the country for a long time. Drunk with their illusory victory, they are already preparing for other actions that further disseminate the spirit of discord in society.
Your Holiness,
Muslims around the world expect from you, at this happy occasion, a strong message and a clear call to followers of the Roman Catholic Church around the world and particularly in Europe, so they do not follow the voices of hate who want to throw them in the abyss of intercommunity conflict, and so they chose the wisdom to live together in harmony. This call will be perceived by Muslims all over the world, worried about what Europeans of Islamic faith are enduring, as a message of tolerance and brotherhood.
We renew to Your Holiness our New Year’s wishes and may God help you in any good deed.
26 December 2009
Signatures
— Rashid Al-Ghannushi, Tunisian thinker and politician
— Mohamed-Larbi Zitout, human rights defender and former Algerian diplomat
— Abdel-Hafid Ouardiri, director of the Inter-Knowing Foundation, Geneva
— Abbas Aroua, director of the Cordoba Foundation, Geneva