Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayer for Muslims, began this Tuesday, April 13, and will last until May 12.
In this world of ours there are no longer isolated spaces; we cannot turn our backs on many realities that were once alien, even hostile, to us. In the field of beliefs, it is perhaps easier to seek common ground with anyone who professes a faith, especially a monotheistic one, as is the case with Jews and Muslims, than with those who deny any kind of transcendence.
We Christians have never felt far from the Jews, who share with us part of the Holy Scriptures. St. John Paul II became the first Pope to visit a synagogue and called the Jews the "elder brothers" of Christians. They are the chosen people, the people of the Covenant which, for us, reaches its fullness with Christ.
Pope Francis has not stopped building bridges with Islam. He was the first Pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula, cradle of the Islamic religion. In May 2014 he was in Jordan, the first stage of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in November he visited Turkey "as a pilgrim, not as a tourist", as he himself said.
In 2015, in the Central African Republic, he visited the Central Mosque of Bangui and proclaimed that "Christians and Muslims are brothers. We have to consider ourselves as such, to behave as such". The following year, he was in Azerbaijan to proclaim forcefully: "Never again violence in the name of God! His words have been endorsed with deeds: at the end of 2017 he visited Bangladeh and Myanmar to try to appease the human crisis of the Rohingya Muslim minority Muslim ethnic group.
Pope Francis has continued his travels in Muslim countries: Egypt, Morocco... and, the last and very significant, Iraq. There, on the plain of Ur, the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, father of the three monotheistic religions, he proclaimed in an interreligious meeting: "God is merciful and the most blasphemous offense is to profane his name by hating one's brother. Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious spirit; they are betrayals of religion". He defended the same idea in Mosul, which had been a stronghold of the self-proclaimed Islamic State: "If God is the God of life - and he is - it is not licit for us to kill our brothers in his name. If God is the God of peace - and he is - it is not lawful for us to wage war in his name. If God is the God of love - and he is - it is not licit for us to hate our brothers and sisters," the Holy Father said.
In this country he made history once again by visiting the city of Najaf, one of the holiest for Shiite Islam, where he met with Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani and again called for "mutual respect and dialogue between religions". For his part, the Grand Ayatollah defended "peace and security" for Christians in Iraq.
During this month, a holy time for Muslim believers, let us remain united by the bonds of brotherhood as sons and daughters of Abraham and let us once again make the decision to be instruments of the peace that is God.
