Christians and Muslims begin landmark dialogue in Vatican



Vatican city // An unprecedented meeting between Christian leaders and Muslim clerics representing hundreds of Islamic organisations from around the world kicked off yesterday in preparation for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow. The meeting, which is hosted by the Vatican, is the first Muslim-Catholic initiative to reach such high level talks. Delegates were locked behind closed doors yesterday in discussions. They will conclude the conference with an official announcement after the meeting with the pope.

"They started closed door talks from a theological perspective about the love of God and love of neighbour," said Tareq Elgawhary, a spokesman for the Common Word delegation. "The talks today were pretty deep and serious, which is the reason they wanted to keep the sessions closed to the public." The effort started with the Common Word, an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, a month after he made a controversial speech in Regensburg, linking Islam to violence as he quoted from a medieval passage, that offended many Muslim leaders.

Other events, such as the cartoons published in Denmark lampooning the Prophet Mohammed, led to the increase in the number of signatories to the Common Word. Initially 183 Muslim scholars and clerics sought an open dialogue with Christian leaders. But hundreds of other Muslim and Christian leaders signed on in time. Earlier this year, delegates met at Yale University and Cambridge University to agree on talking points for the Vatican meeting.

Last week, at the eighth General Conference of Islamic Call meeting in Tripoli, more than 460 Islamic organisations and associations representing various continents and constituents officially endorsed the Common Word. The Vatican meeting is also unique because Sunni Islamic tradition eschews hierarchy and representation by a single organisation. Common Word managed to build an unprecedented consensus among Muslim leaders.

"It is difficult to find any historical precedent to this 'ijmaa'," said Ibrahim Kalin, a professor at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, one of the main parties spearheading Common Word. "Ijmaa" is an Islamic concept of consensus, which is used in legal scholarship, but not as a consensus for political or an interfaith dialogue.

"So this is very unique in Islamic history. But the idea is clear: there is consensus from Muslims on Bosnia and Malaysia. There are Arab, Turkish, Persian, Sunnis and Shiites, scholars and clerics," Prof Kalin said. Italy is one of the few remaining countries in the world that does not officially recognise Islam as a religion, making it difficult for the estimated one million Muslims to build mosques and receive religious support from the country.

One of the main points on the agenda at this meeting will be to create a Judeo-Christian-Muslim forum to advance the current "Judeo-Christian" dialogue that does not include Islam. "We'd like to see progress on that front, to make a Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition as part of the whole Abrahamic tradition," said Prof Kalin. He hoped the forum would provide a body that can address interfaith conflicts, such as violence against Christian minorities in some Muslim countries, and events like the Danish cartoons, which triggered a chain reaction of outrage, violence and an economic boycott of Denmark throughout the Muslim world.

"Christians and Muslims are 55 per cent of the globe," said Prof Kalin. "Unless there's peace between the communities, there can be no hope." While the topics on the agenda include Islamic extremism, which he said drowned the voices of the moderate majority, participants will also discuss the lack of spirituality in many Western countries. "Secular extremism is an issue that has to be dealt with by everyone, whether religious or secular. From family to youth and society's structure, all these things pertain to basic ethical and moral values that are important to any social order, no matter what religion," said Prof Kalin.

Young people in Europe hardly attend religious services, and some studies suggest the majority of Europeans are secular, an issue that is of significant concern to The Vatican. relass@thenational.ae

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Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz

Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

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ICC Awards for 2021

MEN

Cricketer of the Year – Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)

T20 Cricketer of the Year – Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan)

ODI Cricketer of the Year – Babar Azam (Pakistan)

Test Cricketer of the Year – Joe Root (England)

WOMEN

Cricketer of the Year – Smriti Mandhana (India)

ODI Cricketer of the Year – Lizelle Lee (South Africa)

T20 Cricketer of the Year – Tammy Beaumont (England)

THE BIO

Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren

Favourite travel destination: Switzerland

Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers

Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum

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Vacancy Rate 5.4%

Markets With Positive Absorption 85.7 per cent

New Supply 55 million sq ft

New Supply to Inventory 0.4 per cent

Under Construction 198.2 million sq ft

(Source: Colliers)

The Bio

Amal likes watching Japanese animation movies and Manga - her favourite is The Ancient Magus Bride

She is the eldest of 11 children, and has four brothers and six sisters.

Her dream is to meet with all of her friends online from around the world who supported her work throughout the years

Her favourite meal is pizza and stuffed vine leaves

She ams to improve her English and learn Japanese, which many animated programmes originate in

Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

Business Insights
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”