Pope Francis Archives

Pope Francis and Ayatollah Sistani Talks: Balm for Bruised Souls

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World

Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. — Internet photo

Pope Francis’ early March visit to Iraq what must be counted among the Pontiff’s most epoch-making journeys.

SAEED NAQVI

PARDON my Lucknow chauvinism, but the benighted city once had intimate links with the centre of Shia Islam, Najaf, in Iraq, which Pope Francis visited early March in what must be counted among the Pontiff’s most epoch-making journeys. His 50-minute conversation with Shia Islam’s highest spiritual authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, in his modest, rented house in a Najaf alley, must have enriched both.

“A humble and wise man,” the Pope said of Sistani. “It felt good, for my soul, this meeting.” This was no hyperbole; this seemed to reflect the tenor of the conversation, where only interpreters were present.

Yes, that Lucknow link: in 1850, the Begums of Oudh (Awadh) established what came to be known as a Bequest, a trust, of Rs six million to be spent on the maintenance of the shrines at Najaf and Karbala. Stipends for Indian scholars were also established. After the first war of independence in 1857, the British administered the bequest, which gave them leverage over the Shia clerical authority from Najaf to Teheran. By default or deliberation, the system continued until 1979 when Saddam Hussain consolidated power in Baghdad. Saddam’s Ba’ath atheism would have been uncomfortable with Indian indulgence of Shia sectarianism. What would Pope Francis have made of the fact that “Allah-o-Akbar” was inscribed on the Iraqi flag only after Operation Desert Storm in 1992?

Khomeini’s ancestors

Another Lucknow link would have come up tangentially: Awadh antecedents of Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian revolution. Khomeini’s ancestors migrated from Kuntur, a qasbah not far from Lucknow, known for a line of Shia theologians.

The Pope would have been briefed on the vast difference between Sistani and Ayatollah Khamenei (Khomeini before him) on the role of the clergy in the affairs of the state. The issue had divided the Shia clergy down the middle. How can the Iranian revolution of 1979 be deemed to be an “Islamic revolution” without the second coming of the messiah who, in Shia theology, happens to be the 12th Imam who had “disappeared” in Samarra, Iraq. He would appear only on the Day of Judgement.

The clergy in Qom were on sixes and sevens. I was in Qom to meet Ayatollah Montazeri when this was a common topic of discussion. A revolution had come their way, pending Roz-e-Mahshar, Judgement Day. What label was to be pasted on the great happening? That is when the theory of Vilayat-e-Faqih or Vali Faqih, the Intermediate Imam, was enunciated. Pending the return of the Imam, an Intermediate system, under the Supreme leader, would govern, guided by the teachings of Islam.

Sistani and a section of the clergy even in Qom see their role differently — as spiritual guides only. Was Francis comfortable with Sistani on this score? The different circumstance of Teheran and Baghdad must have been part of the briefs prepared for Francis.

The Shah of Iran

In 1979, the Shah was eased out and the Ayatollahs ushered into Teheran. Ayatollah Khomeini, who had been moved from Najaf to the suburb of Neauphle-le-Chateau on the outskirts of Paris, was that very year flown to Teheran. Why this complicated trapeze act?

In the mid 70s, the US had Communist parties coming out of their ears in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Chile, why, even in Afghanistan. Post Shah fervour in Iran would cause Persian Communist parties, Tudeh and Mujahedin-e-Khalq to surface from the underground. The Ayatollahs, the mosques filled with their cadres, would pounce on the Communists. That the Ayatollahs would be no friends of the Americans became apparent only when the siege of the US embassy in Teheran lasted 444 days, an embarrassment on a scale the Americans had never experienced.

1979 also happened to be the year in which Saddam Hussain consolidated himself in Baghdad. Neither the Ayatollahs nor Saddam were buddies of the US, but each could easily be tempted to seek US help against the other. This suited US officials like Martin Indyk, former Ambassador to Israel, who devised dual-containment — supply arms to both and make them fight. The monkey-between-two-cats policy lasted eight long years.

More to the point for the Pope would have been the aftereffects of the post 9/11 wars thrust on Iraq, Syria, Libya, leading to the trek of millions looking for havens in Europe which, in this instance, was fighting xenophobia at home, a creeping aversion to the outsider, resulting in avowedly illiberal politics. Two of the world’s highest religious leaders must have exchanged views on this frightening trend. True they are religious leaders whose mission was not to discuss politics, but rampaging identity politics are nothing but putrefied religious ideas.

Islamophobia by politicians

Islamic terror, for instance, is cited as a cause for increasing Islamophobia by politicians like, say, Marine Le Pen in France. Such examples are strewn across Europe and other parts of the world. What was at fault was a one-sided media focus on Islamic terror, fuelling a Muslim sense of helplessness and anger, there being no outlet for his point of view.

Some of this Sistani must have addressed during their conversation. I hope he reminded the Pope that the first act of occupying forces was to vandalise the National Museum, the great storehouse of artefacts, books, scrolls representing one of the world’s great river civilizations.

It might be something of a hyperbole that his meeting with Sistani, laden with peaceful intent, reversed the Jehad or crusade launched in 1095 by one of his earlier predecessors, Pope Urban II. The eleventh century Pope was rattled by the Muslim occupation of the holy lands. Also, within a hundred years of Prophet Mohammad’s death, the Muslims had established their rule over Spain and beyond. The pace of Muslim spread was unnerving. Pope Francis’ expedition, on the other hand, provides a soothing touch to a people battered and bruised, having been on the declining side of the civilizational giant wheel for too long, a far cry from the days of Pope Urban.

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Saeed Naqvi is a senior journalist, television commentator and columnist. He can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com

Pope Francis’ efforts to promote inter-religious unity: A lesson for current day India

by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions

Pope Francis

Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood

President, Interfaith Coalition for Peace, New Delhi icpindia.org

[In his closing remarks the author requested Prof Michael Calabria to use his good offices and extend a heartfelt invitation from Interfaith Coalition for Peace to Pope Francis to visit India and bless its people]

In mid July 2017, the Interfaith Coalition for Peace organized a talk at India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC), New Delhi by Prof. Father Michael Calabria, Director of the Centre for Arabic and Islamic Studies at St. Bonaventure University of USA. The topic was ‘Pope Francis and Muslims’.

Father Michael informed the audience that the original name of the present Pope is Jorge Mario Bergoglio and that he had adopted ‘Francis’ as his papal name on becoming Pope evoking the memory of St. Francis of Assisi. In 1219, during the fifth Crusade, St. Francis had insisted and travelled to Damietta in Egypt. He tried to prevent the European Crusaders from attacking Muslims but had failed in the attempt; the Crusaders had to face defeat.

After this, St. Francis crossed the line of war, following which he was arrested and brought before Sultan Malek Al-Kamil. Thereafter, for twenty days he and the Sultan had a lengthy exchange of views on issues relating to worship and the mystical way of life, which led St. Francis to discover that both Muslims and Christians are fellow devotees of God. When St. Francis was leaving, the Sultan gifted him an ivory trumpet, which is still preserved in the crypt of basilica at Assisi.

By adopting ‘Francis’ as his papal name, the present Pope has thus sent a clear message to the world that Christians should extend a warm hand of friendship to Muslims and that all issues should be settled through dialogue. The Pope has clearly stated that Christians should respect the customs of Muslims and should win their trust. They must look upon them as fellow human beings and seriously listen to their views.

In his presentation at the IICC, Fr Calabria said that during the Holy Week, during 2013 (and later again in 2016), when Pope Francis washed the feet of the poor and needy people at the Vatican—which is an annual ritual—it was for the first time that women and Muslims were also included among those whose feet the Pope decided to wash. In an encyclical statement issued from the Vatican in 2014, viz Proclamation of the Gospel, the Pope included some supplications (dua) that Muslims usually make and stressed the need for practical efforts across the world to promote love and brotherhood between Muslims and Christians. On that occasion Pope Francis advised the Christian-majority countries to embrace Syrians fleeing their homeland and to give them refuge.

In 2014, Pope Francis accompanied a Muslim imam and a Jewish rabbi to the Dome of the Rock and the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, where he addressed Muslims, referring to them as brothers. The same year in Turkey, the Pope joined the Islamic congregational worship known as Salah or Namaz led by the Imam. In 2015 in Sri Lanka, Pope Francis called for mutual respect, cooperation and friendship among people of different faiths, declaring this as the only route for the welfare of humanity. Appealing for observing 2015 as the Year of Peace, the Pope mentioned that, according to the Quran, the mercy and the compassion of God are among the most exalted attributes of God.

Continuing with his narration of some of the major steps that Pope Francis has taken, Father Calabria mentioned the Pope’s critique of the oppression of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which he said was one-sided violence based simply on account of the victims’ religion being Islam. In the same year during September 2015 the Pope visited ‘Ground Zero’ in New York along with a Muslim imam and a Jewish rabbi.

In 2016, Pope Francis went to Egypt and met with the Imam of Al-Azhar, one of the leading centers of Islamic learning in the world. When asked by media persons what message he wanted to give on this occasion, the Pope replied that this meeting itself was his message to the world. Building and maintaining good relations with Muslims was the most important priority. Later, when journalists asked him what he might like to say about ‘Islamic terrorism’, Pope Francis replied that in Italy, there is violence every day, which is done by people who call themselves Christians, but no one calls it as ‘Christian terrorism’. Hence, to talk of ‘Islamic terrorism’ is wrong. Prof Calabria reminded the audience that in his eight years of presidency, US President Barak Obama never used the term ‘Islamic terrorism’. He reiterated that we don’t say Christian violence and Jewish violence though both do exist.

Prof Calabria emphasized that vast numbers of people have been excluded from the benefits of the present global economic system and hence this economic system is itself a root cause for violence. In 2016, while in Azerbaijan, the Pope mentioned that one’s self-enrichment lies in opening one’s doors to others with the goal of human good. In the same year, in Rome, the Pope mentioned that in both Arabic and Hebrew, the word rahm or compassion or mercy is derived from the 3-letter root R-H-M that means the mother’s womb where the infant develops and from there it enters the world. So, peace in the world begins from Rahm, meaning both womb and kindness. Thus, mercy & compassion are among the foremost attributes of God and He expects the same from human beings, too.

Dr Calabria remarked that US President Donald Trump has talked about building a wall between the USA and Mexico, while Pope Francis talks of demolishing walls and building bridges. The Pope has sent a message to the world to convert conflicts into mutual cooperation through interfaith dialogue. The whole world needs to emulate the Pope’s exemplary work.

Prof Michael Calabria stressed that it was very important to spread the Pope’s message in India today and to draw lessons from it. Religious diversity should be the basis of India’s unity, for which hatred and so-called feelings of revenge in the name of religion need to be uprooted. Political conflicts must not be given a religious color.