SEGHAYER Building bridges of mutual understanding between the West and Muslims is possible and within reach. The first thing that we should do as members of the Muslim world is to open our hearts and minds and overlook the position of some influential and key leaders, particularly in the Vatican, who are reportedly against building bridges of dialogue with the Muslim world. From their perspective, allowing such dialogue would lead to Islam being put on a par with Christianity. We should also disregard the fact that Pope Benedict downgraded the office responsible for dialogue with Muslims to a clerical level. We need to act accordingly simply because we have a clear message we are striving to convey to the entire world—that is, that we are determined to work hard to foster understating, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence. We are more than willing to extend our hands and open our hearts to people of other religions in the world and to followers of Christianity in particular. I hope that there will be some moves and messages from the Pope and a readiness on the part of the Muslim world to open a new chapter toward engaging both worlds in constructive dialogue to overcome the barriers and build bridges of understanding with mutual cooperation from both sides. Peaceful coexistence and eventual long-lasting harmony are the consequences of mutual understanding and respect. The key to allowing such hope to materialize is to identify common goals and values. Then, we need to move on and identify objectively and comprehensively the causes of the negative images on both sides and the ways to overcome them. Both worlds are also in need of finding common ground on which the bridges of understanding can be built for a better future for humanity. The Muslim and Western worlds have realized that it is in the interest of both worlds not to escalate any further the already existing misunderstanding, misperceptions, suspicions, and bigotry on both sides. They are also awakening to a new belief that the time is ripe for both Christianity and Islam to join hands in cooperation and understanding, not clench fists in confrontation and prejudice. As stated earlier, building bridges of understanding with mutual cooperation between the Muslim world and the West is within our reach; once there is a genuine will from the Muslim and Western worlds, there will be a way to overcome the climate of pessimism and mutual distrust. There is still hope at the end of the tunnel in the current global society that makes us strongly believe that generating an atmosphere of new optimism and understanding between the Islamic world and the West is indeed possible, especially building those bridges at the human level — people-to-people bridges. (The writer is a Saudi academic who can be reached at [email protected]) __
