Middle East studies in the News

Esposito Spearheading Interfaith Dialogues

by Raymond Ibrahim
Dhimmi Watch
August 5, 2008

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/022078.php

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/5441

Renowned apologist for Islamania, soft-spoken "Catholic" dhimmi, and, most recently, misrepresenter of data, John Esposito declares that Catholics and Muslims should -- drum roll please -- dialogue: "Georgetown scholar: Muslims comfortable in dialogue with Catholics," by Chris Herlinger for the Catholic Explorer, August 4:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CNS) -- Roman Catholics can play an important role in burgeoning and, by nearly all accounts, needed efforts in dialogue between Christians and Muslims, said a noted Catholic scholar of Islamic studies.

"Muslims say they're comfortable dialoguing with Catholics" because of the church's steadfast positions on questions such as family, abortion and bioethics, said John Esposito, director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington.

This, of course, is the same center which Representative Frank Wolf took to task, questioning the all too obvious correlation between Saudi Wahhabi ideology and money on the one hand, and compromised scholarly objectivity and risk to national security on the other.

Esposito, 68, participated in a just-completed conference of Christians and Muslims held at Yale University in New Haven. Conference participants hoped to improve interfaith relations frayed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
[...]

Esposito's comments came as a prominent Muslim intellectual praised Pope Benedict XVI for his role in promoting interfaith dialogue.
[...]

Esposito noted that Pope Benedict will hold what is being called a landmark Catholic-Muslim meeting in November.

One can only hope that this inter-faith conference, unlike Yale's, actually addresses topics pertaining to faith.

Journalists covering the Yale conference were sometimes frustrated by what seemed to be a lack of concrete outcomes from the event -- though one outcome was a clear call for Christian and Muslim clerics to speak publicly during a designated week each year in praise of the other's tradition.

Esposito, a veteran of such conferences, said while the results of such interfaith meetings are often hard to gauge the process under way should be respected.
[...]

Being a "veteran of such conferences" merely points out that little has been accomplished, as these conferences should not be viewed as ends-in-and-of-themselves (i.e., time wasted), but means-to-an-end -- namely, an end to jihad.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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