Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Letters

Need to understand ordinary Muslims

byStaff writers
19 November 2006
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

AS a Catholic who has a Muslim daughter and granddaughter, and who is a regular guest at the Canberra Islamic Centre, I was both saddened and confused by Fr Kevin Ryan’s column (Real Life, CL 29/10/06) where he defends the Pope’s comments on Islam.

Confused, because he readily concedes that both Christianity and Islam have failed many times to act “as if God is a god of love”.

We could add that they have both failed to act as if God is a God of reason.

Yet he also argues that we must not “pretend differences do not exist”, and identifies the basis of the difference as the Christian recognition of “God’s nature to act within reason” and “Muslims not seeing it that way”. What is the evidence for this?

Neither Fr Ryan nor the Pope has identified anything intrinsic to Islam. A parade of historic examples only invites an exchange from the other side.

The 14th century is a particularly apt era to bring to mind.

Most historians say that Muslim Spain was a beacon of tolerance relative to that era, and credit the Moors with the preservation of the Greek scholarship and reason so dear to the Pope.

Compare that to what followed after the Reconquest, the treatment of Jews and Muslims, and those of them who succumbed to conversion.

History as well as the present day can provide many examples of appalling violence and unreason.

Religion (all religions) is only one of the elements of national and cultural identity which can sometimes erupt into conflict.

Related Stories

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

We get nowhere by trying to show one religion was better or worse than another, or that regimes that rally under a religious banner were better or worse than the avowedly atheistic.

Christianity can mean any one of many Catholic traditions, the broadest Anglican or Uniting Church, Pentecostal, Southern Baptist … we could go on.

All are deeply embedded in a culture and a national history. It is the same in Islam.

The Canberra Islamic Centre has members from 60 different nationalities.

Their board has men and women from a variety of traditions, and I have observed a lot of lively (and reasoned) debate. Whether or not the women cover or wear hijab is almost always to do with their cultural tradition. Perhaps the most influential person there in terms of setting agendas is a Lebanese woman in her 40s, who wears hijab and is divorced.

My own daughter is a single mother who does not wear hijab. The centre always invites Christians and Jews to significant occasions such as Eid, and has representatives at interfaith gatherings.

Selective quotes from scripture, exchanges of horrors perpetrated by the other side and media stories which inevitably focus on the sensational do not get us anywhere or prove anything.

It is only by seeing how ordinary people actually live their faith that we can begin to understand.

JO-ANNE BRUFORD

Woombye, Qld

ShareTweet
Previous Post

WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?

Next Post

Art with a little heart

Staff writers

Related Posts

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

27 May 2022
Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria
World

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia
Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Next Post

Art with a little heart

Nation on knees for rain

Cloning bill has 'hidden horror'

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christian Brothers’ community mourn the passing of Brother Tony White

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping