Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 120 ] — INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE FOR PEACE — steemed Brothers and Sisters — I hope you have enough patience left to listen to the last speaker this evening. I will try to say some- thing out of the box. Dear Religious Leaders, Ladies and Gentlemen— the world is changing. It is chang- ing quickly and profoundly. But the concept of the Other in our different cultures and traditions is not changing. On the contrary, it is becoming more rigid, hard and extreme. Let me give you two examples. Firstly, Christianity, until the dawn of the nineteenth century, was mainly European and American. Those two continents were home to 85 per cent of the Christians of that time. Now, one third of Chris- tians are in Africa alone. Another one third of Christians are in Asia and South America. This change means that Christianity is no longer the religion of the white, rich and powerful; now, it is also the religion of the coloured, poor and oppressed. Furthermore, Christianity is not isolated from other religions. Christians of different denominations live side by side with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and others. This fundamental change is not often taken into Dr. Mohammad Sammak E