Nostra Aetate - In Our Time

41 NOSTRA AETATE AND THE RELIGIONS OF ABRAHAM efore answering – or trying to answer – the question as to what Muslims can learn from Nostra Aetate , it is useful to answer two preliminary questions: v What, in the Muslim world, is wrong with learning from others? v What is right within Nostra Aetate from which Muslims can learn? These questions are interconnected. On the one hand, one-third of the 1.6 billion Muslims – that is about 600 million of them – live in non-Islamic countries and soci- eties; and two-thirds of the 2.2 billion Christians live in the Third World, specifically in Africa and Asia where Islam is prevalent. This physical inter-connectedness implies the necessity for a mutual acceptance, respect, and cooperation. The main gate for this is a mutual understanding, and Nostra Aetate itself is a significant source for this understanding, as I’ll show later. I have to admit that, yes there is something wrong in the Islamic world. This world is very rich in natural resources, yet its peoples are very poor and unsettled. The highest percentage of refugees and displaced peoples in the world is of Muslims. Tensions are high within Muslims of different con- fessions (Sunni & Shia) and between Muslims and non-Muslims. For instance, between: v Muslims and Hindus in India and Sri Lanka v Muslims and Buddhists in China, Thailand and Myanmar v Muslims and Christian Orthodox in Russia v Muslims and Christian Catholics in Europe v Muslims and Christian Protestants in the USA v Muslims and Jews in Israel and beyond v Muslims and other different believers – the Izidis of Iraq in particular. All of these negative features require a courageous reconsideration and revaluation of the current situation in the Islamic world. The process of reconsideration requires firstly the admission, even the confession, that there is a major problem. And that it is not necessarily true that others are responsible for that problem, but that Muslims themselves are. That it is not useful anymore to avoid self-criticism and seek refuge under the umbrella of a “foreign conspiracy theory against Islam,” but to blame ourselves as Muslims, in the first place. We Muslims, have to admit that we are facing a real and existential problem. The act of defining this problem – or any other problem – goes a long way to being able to solve it; to paraphrase Albert Einstein. Now the question is: who has the legitimate author- ity to define the problem? And who has the wisdom to outline the solution? And who has the courage to admit that Muslims should learn from other constructive expe- riences like Nostra Aetate ? Now, before talking about Nostra Aetate , and what and how to learn from it, let me tell you a short story of a great man who made history. The man is Angelo Roncalli. Angelo was a soldier in the Italian army during WWI. In the battlefield he saw how millions were killed by every means, even by poisonous gas. He was shocked by the experience and became sick. After the war he joined the clergy to find spiritual refuge, and was appointed to the Vatican Embassy, first in Greece then in Bulgaria where he became acquainted with Christian Orthodoxy, and in Ankara where he was introduced to Muslims. After WW2 he became Bishop and appointed the Vatican’s Ambassador to France, where communism, secularism, and the leftist movements were then at their peak. Roncalli then became a cardinal and, on 28 Octo- ber 1958, he was elected Pope, adopting the name John XXIII. Pope John XXIII carried with him to the papacy his experiences and encounters both in war and peace. On 25 January 1959, and for the first time in the his- tory of the Vatican, he addressed a message to the UN – that is to all nations of different religions, cultures and ethnicities – in which he said: “Peace on earth is an object of profound desire for humanity.” He confirmed in his message, the four principles necessary to achieve peace for humanity: truth, justice, solidarity, and liberty. At that time, the Catholic church considered com- munism to be anti-Christian – an influence from Pope Pius XII. But Pope John XXIII received into the Holy See the son-in-law of the Soviet President at that time, Nikita Khrushchev. This is the short story of the Pope who called for Vatican II, but who passed away on 3 June 1963, two years before it concluded the meetings which culmi- nated in Nostra Aetate on 18 December 1965 with the B