Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior will be awarded the International Coventry Prize for Tolerance and Peace tomorrow in Great Britain. The non-monetary prize is bestowed by the heads of the Anglican Church and representatives of the Royal House. Rabbi Melchior and his co-winners Sheikh Talal Sidr of the Palestinian Authority and Latin Patriarch Michel Sabah are being recognized for their efforts to advance dialogue among the three religions in the Middle East. The prize laureates will meet tomorrow with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Rabbi Melchior told Arutz-7 today about his work:
"Our goals are to try and create a religious legitimacy and acceptance of the other, and to touch upon the real issues of the conflict. Secular politicians can't deal with this, because these issues mainly deal with our respective religious identities... Our efforts received a push a few months ago in Alexandria, when religious leaders convened together for a unique 'interfaith summit' to discuss these issues... The basis is that I can have a strong feeling of who I am, but at the same time, know that there is room for others."
He mentioned that one of the participants in Alexandria was Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, "who is the head of the largest Moslem academy in the world, the unchallenged leader of 85% of the Moslem world." Although Tantawi was one of the signatories to the joint statement condemning the killing of the innocent, he later qualified this. Two months ago, Tantawi ruled that blowing oneself up among "enemy aggressors" is an act of martyrdom, and that this is true even if women and children are thus killed, for, "What can he do?… He is not able to differentiate between them."
Other Muslim voices have condemned suicide bombings. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia said last year, for instance, that suicide bombings had "nothing to do with Jihad," and Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a leading Pakistani Muslim scholar and president of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, wrote this past January, "The killing of innocent people is terrorism irrespective of the fact whether they are Muslims or not. It is also terrorism to murder the peaceful people regardless of their being in state of war, when they are not fighting with you directly..." Rabbi Melchior mentioned today that leading Muslim scholars condemn terrorist killings: "I am referring to major religious leaders - not just marginal Peace Now activists. This doesn't mean that we have solved all our problems, or that we like everything they say, just like they don't like everything we say - but we have to start somewhere."
Rabbi Melchior told Arutz-7 today about his work:
"Our goals are to try and create a religious legitimacy and acceptance of the other, and to touch upon the real issues of the conflict. Secular politicians can't deal with this, because these issues mainly deal with our respective religious identities... Our efforts received a push a few months ago in Alexandria, when religious leaders convened together for a unique 'interfaith summit' to discuss these issues... The basis is that I can have a strong feeling of who I am, but at the same time, know that there is room for others."
He mentioned that one of the participants in Alexandria was Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, "who is the head of the largest Moslem academy in the world, the unchallenged leader of 85% of the Moslem world." Although Tantawi was one of the signatories to the joint statement condemning the killing of the innocent, he later qualified this. Two months ago, Tantawi ruled that blowing oneself up among "enemy aggressors" is an act of martyrdom, and that this is true even if women and children are thus killed, for, "What can he do?… He is not able to differentiate between them."
Other Muslim voices have condemned suicide bombings. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia said last year, for instance, that suicide bombings had "nothing to do with Jihad," and Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a leading Pakistani Muslim scholar and president of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, wrote this past January, "The killing of innocent people is terrorism irrespective of the fact whether they are Muslims or not. It is also terrorism to murder the peaceful people regardless of their being in state of war, when they are not fighting with you directly..." Rabbi Melchior mentioned today that leading Muslim scholars condemn terrorist killings: "I am referring to major religious leaders - not just marginal Peace Now activists. This doesn't mean that we have solved all our problems, or that we like everything they say, just like they don't like everything we say - but we have to start somewhere."