Dialogue Document
Friends and Not Adversaries: A Catholic-Muslim Spiritual Journey (2003)
Friends And Not Adversaries: A Catholic-Muslim Spiritual Journey, The West Coast Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims 2003
"As Christians and Muslims, we are particularly aware of challenges and opportunities afforded by the tragic events of September 11, 2001, because of distinctive religious factors in the causes, the events themselves, and responses to the events. Our American society that absorbed the tragic blows of September 11th is pluralistic in every major way—religiously, racially, ethnically, and culturally. We enjoy a religious pluralism guaranteed by the Constitution, in that no religious group is legally superior to others and every group has freedom to exercise their religious traditions within the limits of civil society. Opportunities abound for religious groups to flourish and to interact creatively and peacefully, but we are aware that this ideal has not been fully realized at all times by every religious group and that this prescribed religious pluralism has not been characteristic of every historical era. The advancement of religious freedom is a long-term undertaking, and active engagement of religious groups with one another that defines religious pluralism as a political and social phenomenon does not occur easily.
Both Islam and Christianity are global religions taking diverse forms in the wide variety of cultures in which they appear. Thus, Christians and Muslims encounter one another and live together in a variety of cultural and political contexts. Our religions have been divided by sectarianism; at the same time, we each value unity of doctrine and moral practice."