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HOLY LAND: Reaching out across the religious divide
By John Pontifex
Doctor Geries Khoury, director of the Al-Liqa’ Centre in Bethlehem
An inter-faith research organisation in Bethlehem is responding to increased tension in the Holy Land by preparing a publication debunking myths about Islam.
In the book, commissioned by the Al-Liqa’ Centre, leading scholars on religion make the case that Islam’s roots show it to be a religion founded on peace.
Al-Liqa’ Centre director Doctor Geries Khoury told Aid to the Church in Need that the book will show radicals have ignored the peaceful themes developed in the Hadith and other traditions and writings dating back to Islam’s earliest days.
Doctor Khoury said: “The book provides an opportunity for scholars to show the results of their research work, which presents Islam in a very different light to that put forward by radicals.
“The publication will help many Muslims in the West Bank and elsewhere to open their eyes and show them that there is an alternative vision of Islam enabling them to be 100 percent good Muslims without the need to politicise their religion or misuse it to justify violence and terrorism.”
Copies of the book, which has yet to be given a title, will be sent to key academic and government figures as well as being available on sale through the Al-Liqa’ Centre.
Doctor Khoury, a Melkite Greek Catholic, said the publication would benefit from the centre’s growing reputation for academic excellence and inter-faith relationship building, initiatives which have been part-funded by Aid to the Church in Need.
He said the book, which is due out in April 2011, comes “at the right moment”. Islam in the Holy Land has come under increased suspicion amid reports of increased hard-line Israeli policies under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Doctor Khoury said the Israeli authorities tended to exaggerate the Islamist influence in West Bank society and that a “different way of looking at Islam” was necessary.
Highlighting how an Israeli plan to build a bridge from the Western Wall to the Mount of Olives had outraged Muslims, Doctor Khoury said: “Relations between Israelis and Palestinians look set only to continue deteriorating and we are running out of chances to keep peace alive.”
Doctor Khoury said Al-Liqa’s book could have an important influence thanks to the reputation of its writers who include scholars from Bethlehem University, Nablus University in the West Bank and other respected institutes in the region.