PRINCIPLES FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE.pdf - CUEA

y them. Therefore the Muslims and the Byzantines had not
understanding of each other.
However in the West Islam was seen as evil, and so it could not be
trusted. Daniel Norman described such attitudes:
In that religion there are both many truths inserted into the lies, and good
things mixed with the bad, even with malice to deceive: namely so that the
false things should be believed because of the true, or else that the bad
things should be received because of the good... It is important to realize
that truth in the mouth of Muhammad, a corrupt witness who put about a
perversion of the sacred page, could never be trusted. 32
Without any doubt, these Eastern, Byzantine and Western attitudes
towards Muslims and Christians changed everything in their
respective worlds. Implicitly or explicitly, they prepared the climate of
the end of the 11th century. At this time crusades began and brought
a climate of hatred and intolerance. Christians exalted crusades
while Muslims called for jihad. There is a lot of to say about crusades
and jihad because the battle was long and horrible. Thanks be to
God, some Christians began to rethink that a climate of peace,
friendship correct knowledge of Islam and an adequate method of
presenting the message, were needed in order to convert Muslims.
This awareness bore fruit in the 13th century.
CONCLUSION
We have to acknowledge the effort made so far in the history of
Muslim-Christian relations. Now, everything done in the past should
be looked at in the ligth of the present reality. So, it is no longer a
time of polemical treatment, which led many writers to present only
the bad side of other religions. It is rather a time of a new dialogical
approach in order to achieve fraternal understanding between the
children of Abraham in the search of social justice, moral values and
world peace. So we need to know our common history in order to
correct our mistakes and improve our situation for a better future.
The history of Christian-Muslim encounter from the lifetime of
Muhammad to the end of the `Abbasid dynasty is long, rich and
important because of its development. Anyone who understands it
can paint it as time of struggles, confrontations, negotiations,
32 Daniel Norman, Islam and the West. The making of an image, (Edinburgh: University Press, 1966),
p. 164.
Created by DEAN-FASSFrederic Ntedika Mvumbi, OP
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