March 15, 2013
by Arsalan Iftikhar
Now that the Vatican has selected Pope Francis (the artist former known as “Jorge Bergoglio”) to be the next head of the Catholic Church, many people are wondering what his selection will do for Christian-Muslim global interfaith relations.
Here are the “Top Three” reasons that the selection of Pope Francis will be good for Christian-Muslim relations:
1) He is not Pope Benedict
As many people remember, the last Pope made international headlines when he gave a controversial speech about Islam in September 2006 at Regensburg University in Germany.
During his speech, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor named Manuel II Palaiologos who said this about Islam:
“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached…”
After his controversial statement above, Pope Benedict initially stated that he was just quoting someone else and that these views did not represent his own opinions.
Nice try…Do you think that Pope Benedict could quote Adolf Hitler in a speech and just say: “Hey, I’m just quoting someone else…”
Here is an MSNBC interview of mine on the Pope Benedict controversy right after his speech (my apologies for the far-too-much makeup the MSNBC artist put on my face):
Needless to say, the tenure of Pope Benedict did nothing to improve Christian-Muslim relations. Which is why it is important for Pope Francis to learn from Pope Benedict’s predecessor and leads me to my second reason.
2) Pope Francis will be more like Pope John Paul II
Man, I miss JPII…After all…How many popes in history are known just by their initials?
Seriously though, there has not been a Catholic pope in recent history who has done more for interfaith relations than the late Pope John Paul II.
First of all, many people do not know that Pope John Paul II was the first pope ever to visit a Jewish synagogue when he visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on April 13, 1986.
According to The New York Times, it was there that “JPII” embraced the world’s Jewish population as ”our elder brothers” and condemned displays of anti-Semitism ”at any time and by anyone.”
Secondly, even fewer people know that “JPII” was also the first pope ever to visit a mosque when he visited the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in May 2001.
During his visit to the region, CNN quoted him as saying his hope was that “fear will turn into trust and contempt to mutual esteem, that force will give way to dialogue, and that a genuine desire to serve the common good will prevail.”
Immediately after his death in July 2005, here is a TV interview of mine where I highlighted the amazing ecumenical interfaith work of Pope John Paul II during his life:
3) Pope Francis Was Already A “Friend” to Muslim Community in Argentina
As the news of Pope Francis’ election starting making global headlines, one major under-reported story was the relationship that he had with Argentina’s Muslim community during his tenure as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
According to the Buenos Aires Herald newspaper in Argentina, the Muslim community in Argentina “welcomed the election of Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
“He always showed himself as a friend of the Islamic community” and visited several mosques and Islamic centers in Argentina during his tenure as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
For these reasons, after eight years of semi-stale relations between the Catholic church and the Muslim world during the tenure of Pope Benedict, I think that the selection of Pope Francis as the new leader of more than 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide will only help to bring our Christian sisters and brothers closer to over 1.57 billion Muslims around the world.
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and author of the book Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era.
