Incredible stuff coming across the news yesterday. A group of leading Islamic scholars and imams have written a letter, called A Common Word, to the leaders of the major Christian denominations, offering an olive branch of peace between the faiths. The rationale for the bond of unity is the observation of the common threads of 1) the love of One God and 2) the love of neighbor as ourselves which, according to the Muslim authors, form the essential core of both faith traditions.

In essence, these leading Muslim scholars are arguing for peace between the religions on religious grounds.

I can't recommend enough to you to drop by the BBC website and download the full document and read it.

The letter indicated that Muslims are to call Christians and Jews to the worship of One God as "God commanded them." The call is not to become Muslims (to convert), but to ensure that our worship is of God and not of "kings and the like." The letter goes on to say that Islam holds as a core value that there can "be no compulsion in religion" so that religious liberty and justice for all are core values in this letter's interpretation of the Islamic faith. This may sound extraordinary to modern ears and minds that flash to Iran and Saudi Arabia, but we should just as quickly remember that Cordoba (in modern day-Spain) under Muslim control in the 10th century was the world center of religious freedom and pluralism....

The letter concludes:

Finding common ground between Muslims and Christians is not simply a matter for polite ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders. Christianity and Islam are the largest and second largest religions in the world and in history. Christians and Muslims reportedly make up over a third and over a fifth of humanity respectively. Together they make up more than 55% of the world’s population, making the relationship between these two religious communities the most important factor in contributing to meaningful peace around the world. If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world’s inhabitants. Thus our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake.

So let our differences not cause hatred and strife between us. Let us vie with each other only in righteousness and good works. Let us respect each other, be fair, just and kind to another and live in sincere peace, harmony and mutual goodwill.

Millions--hundreds of millions of clear-headed Christians and Muslims want nothing more than to practice our faiths in a context of mutual respect, honor, and mutually-assured safety. Only a militant few from each faith want conflict. The letter is a powerful statement from within Islam that there is a core of faithful Muslims who are willing to go on the public record as declaring their religiously-based conviction to the life-affirming ideas of religious pluralism and justice.

The One God smiles. His children have made him happy, if only for a day...