Witnesses of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation

86 adies and gentlemen, I wish to express our deep gratitude to HH Pope Francis for receiving us yesterday. It was a special occasion to listen to him and to be granted the privilege to gain an understanding of his wisdom on the nature and value of mercy, which we are gathered here to take with us out into the world. I am sure we all wish that everyone could have had this experience. I deeply appreciate HE Bishop Ayuso’s suggestion of co-organizing this symposium in partnership with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue here in the Holy See. Today, is therefore a really special occasion. We are very gratified that so many of you have been able to participate. You came from all over the world, carrying with you all of the wishes and the hopes of many people to see us achieve coexistence in a time when so many have lost hope for a peaceful world. Too many people believe in the inevitability of a clash between cultures; they believe that we are going to separate from our neighbours, that we are going to hate others. But, here we learnt that there are many, many good people among us, and they are exemplars of mercy. They per- form miracles. We are also grateful to this university for hosting us in this beautiful auditorium. We have met the university’s delightful staff and enjoyed talking with them. We are also thankful to Rev. Prof. Fadi Daou and the Adyan Foundation’s staff for joining us and sharing their expe- riences. We enjoyed working so closely together. I believe that the experience we are gaining from our dialogue on the nature, meaning, purpose and value of mercy is very important. It is impossible to translate mercy into rules or law. If mercy is to be exercised it must first become part of our thinking. It is impossible to transfer mercy by law; it must become part of our lifestyle. We should think about mercy in the act of rais- ing our children and consider how we can instil mercy in the daily practice of our lives and of their lives. We can teach mercy because we know what it really means. In the Middle East we are facing so many problems. We are facing injustice in many ways and in many places. In the past two days, we have been speaking about injustices around the world. We have had an inten- sive dialogue about the Middle East and discussed war in Afghanistan, the horrors of September 11th, the war in Iraq and now the conflict in Syria. And in every case, the results of these injustices and conflicts are devastat- ing, especially for our coexistence. For hundreds of years we have lived at peace with our Christian brothers, and suddenly the Pandora’s box of media manipulation has been opened and immediately we begin to reject each other. What is going wrong? We should invite the media and the politicians to wake up. It is unjust to accuse one and a half billion Muslims of a crime committed by terrorists who kidnap a religion. No one should reward these criminals by granting them the status of a state and according them right or legitimacy for their claims to connection to any religion. They are a gang of crim- inals and their recognition as anything else is a deadly mistake. I urge caution. These mistakes destroy trust. I believe, in order to exercise mercy in our lives, that we have to build trust that the Other is also capable of mercy. European soci- eties managed to dismantle the Berlin Wall, a huge, impenetrable concrete wall. It separated the continent for a generation. Today, we witness people building mountains of fear. These mountains are much more difficult to overcome and dismantle than any concrete wall. We must be both cautious and merciful. If we are to continue to accuse each other and search our histo- ries for a black spot that we repeatedly use against each other, then we will be committing a deadly mistake. To overcome the mountains of fear, all that we need is mercy and the building of trust. We need to witness the power of mercy evidenced by the stories we shared here. I am deeply grateful to each of you for your witnessing, Closing Remarks His Excellency Faisal Bin Muaammar, KAICIID Secretary General CONCLUDING WORDS L