As I noted here, the letter from the 138 Islamic scholars, despite the ululations of joy it has inspired in the West, is extremely problematic. By not even mentioning the Qur’an’s characterization of key elements of orthodox Christianity as “unbelief,” even to explain them away, the scholars have left themselves open to charges of, at the very least, disingenuousness.
By Tom Heneghan for Reuters (thanks to Sr. Soph):
PARIS (Reuters) – The top Vatican official for Islam has praised a novel Muslim call for dialogue but said real theological debate with them was difficult as they saw the Koran as the literal word of God and would not discuss it in depth.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, in an interview on Friday with the French Catholic daily La Croix, also said Christians would have to discuss curbs on building churches in the Islamic world in the dialogue advocated by 138 Muslim scholars in the appeal.
His interview, coming after mostly positive comments by other Catholic Islam experts, signaled the world’s largest Christian church wanted a serious dialogue with Muslims that did not avoid some fundamental issues dividing the religions.
“Muslims do not accept that one can discuss the Koran in depth, because they say it was written by dictation from God,” Tauran said. “With such an absolute interpretation, it is difficult to discuss the contents of faith.”
The fact that Muslims can build mosques in Europe while many Islamic states limit or ban church building cannot be ignored, he said. “In a dialogue among believers, it is fundamental to say what is good for one is good for the other,” he said.
The adherents of a supremacist creed, on the other hand, don’t believe that what is good for one is good for the other. So the response to this, if any comes, will be interesting.