Many points in common

Here what I have found on the net and it is taken from
the net and this paper was prepares for Doha-Qnference.
The post is too long but worth reading it.

Dialogue and Action
By Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi
(Chairman, Fiqh Council of North America, Professor of Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at California State University, and Chapman University, USA)

First I would like to express my deep appreciation to His Highness the Emir of Qatar for his leadership and vision for holding this dialogue program and for the gracious hospitality. I am very thankful to him and to the people of Qatar. I pray for the continued blessings of Allah on this land and its people.
Many speakers yesterday and today spoke about the importance and need of dialogue among religions, cultures and civilizations. Indeed in our world where rapid means of transportation and communication have reduced the distances and made us all aware of our dependence on each other in this global village, dialogue is not only a desirable thing but it is a necessity. We need dialogue with other religions and cultures and within each religion and culture. As we are conducting this dialogue in a frank and cordial style with our Christian and Jewish friends and partners, we should also hold dialogues within our Muslim Ummah among various groups and Madhahib. The killing of Sunnis and Shi’ahs that is going on in our neighboring Iraq is very disturbing and painful. These shameful and horrible acts must stop immediately. Islam forbids killing any innocent person of any religion or culture. Killing any innocent person is like killing the whole humanity as the Qur’an says (al-Ma’idah 5:32).
I hope this dialogue among the people of various faiths will continue and grow into a movement among Muslims. It should create a culture of dialogue among us and help us to overcome our internal difficulties as well. I suggest to the Muslim leaders in this audience to work collectively for intrafaith dialogues among Muslims as well.
The role of religion has been great in building civilizations. All civilizations in the world owe a great deal to religions. The major religions of the world have produced:
o great literature
o societies
o cultures and civilizations
o great art
o wonderful monuments
o laws, philosophies and poetry
It is true that religions were involved sometimes in wars and conflicts; but the wars of beliefs and doctrines have been much less than the wars that were fought for the sake of political power, material resources or in the name of nationalism and racism.
In our world today the role of religion has become less and less in every society. We are not in the age of religion, but in the age of materialism and secularism. Major sources of conflict are not religious but political, economic and nationalistic. Religions, nevertheless, still exert major influence. There are some who misuse religion and exploit religious sentiments to create hate and violence. There are also those who are busy making propaganda against religion. Islam is the major target of propaganda today. Islamophobia is growing day by day. There are many individuals and groups, especially in the West, who are trying to tarnish the image of Islam and to create hate against all Muslims.
As religious people our responsibility is to strengthen the role of religion and to stop both its misuse as well as anti-religious propaganda against all religions. As religious people our responsibility is not only to protect and promote our own religion, but we must speak against hate and prejudice against all people. We must work to protect human race and human civilization. We are at the verge of destroying this planet and its species. We must exert our efforts to bring justice and peace to the suffering humanity.
I am pleased that this meeting is taking place and it has grown from Muslim- Christian dialogue to Muslim, Christian and Jewish dialogue. We are bound together through history and through destiny. Our three traditions have many things in common and historically we have also interacted and learned much from each other. We have to promote understanding and good will among us. We do have problems and difficulties; but the ideal way is to solve our problems is through dialogues and negotiations rather than confrontations, violence and wars.
Clash of civilizations and cultures come when people in those civilizations and cultures start thinking:
o We have nothing in common with others.
o We are good and they are evil.
o We have a duty to control them and dominate them.
There is a great need of understanding and emphasizing the common links between our three faiths. The similarities between our faith traditions are many and extremely important for building good relations.
Islam has many common links with Judaism and Christianity. In some cases it is similar to Judaism and in some cases it is similar to Christianity; but, of course, it is a religion in its own right. With Judaism we share a more congruent form of monotheism, but with Christianity we share the love and admiration of Jesus and his mother Mary. Jews and Christians share the same Hebrew Bible, but Islam shares with Judaism its many Biblical rules and laws. The Jewish law known as the Halakha and the Islamic law known as the Shari’ah have many similarities. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all the three have the eschatological expectation of the Messiah, but Islam and Christianity are together in recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, while Jews have a different view.
We have:
1. Historical or genealogical linkage
2. Prophetic Linkage
3. Theological linkage
4. Ethical linkage
5. Existential Linkage
6. Eschatological Linkage
1. Historically: We are all children of Abraham. Abraham’s first son Ishmael (Gen. 16) was born in response to Abraham’s prayers to God. He was the first circumcised son (Gen. 17:20). He was promised to be a great nation (Gen. 21:13). Both Ishmael and Isaac were together at the burial of their father (Gen. 25:9). It is the same Ishmael who built with his father Abraham the first House for the worship of one God in Makkah (Qur’an 2:127). Prophet Muhammad’s lineage is traced back to Ishmael. Muslims recognize Ishmael and Isaac both as prophets of God. God promised his blessings for those who will bless Abraham. There is no community who blesses Abraham as much as Muslims do. Every day at least 12 times (Fajr 4, Zuhr 2, Asr 2, Maghrib 2 and Isha 2) we mention God’s blessings upon Abraham and his progeny.
2. Prophetic Linkage: There are 25 prophets mentioned by name in the Qur’an. 23 of them are the same mentioned in the Bible both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Their stories are also very similar.
3. Theological Linkage: We believe in the same One God. Even the name Allah is similar to the Hebrew Elohim or Aramaic Eloh. With Jews we share the declaration of Divine Unity, the Shema’, very similar to the Shahadah, the first Pillar of Islam and its most important principle of Tawhid. Islam does not accept the Christian doctrine of the Trinity or the Divinity of Jesus; however, Jesus is a highly respected prophet in Islam. Muslims believe in his virgin birth, his gospel and his miracles. Muslims call him the Messiah and believe in his second coming.
4. Ethical Linkage: The Ten Commandments are fully acceptable to Muslims. The ethical and moral rules from the 613 Rabbinic Mitzvot, and the Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, from Mishnah are very similar to Islamic teachings in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Similarly the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7, Luke 6:17-38) and the Qur’an (Surah 6:151-153; 17:22-39; 25: 63-77; 31:13-19; 49: 11-13 etc.) contain very similar teachings.
5. Existential Linkage: Muslims, Christians and Jews lived with each other and have learnt from each other. Most of the time relations have been very positive. The current crisis is also not religious; it is more of a political and economic nature. We do not accept the term “Islamic terrorism.” Terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. It is an unfortunate phenomenon of our modern world and exists in many religious as well as non-religious communities. Many Muslims and non-Muslims are working together to fight this evil and eradicate it from our world.
6. Eschatological Linkage: Our three faith communities share the hope for a better future world. We use different expression for a messianic era when peace and justice will prevail. The hope that the good will triumph over the evil and God’s people will be redeemed is at the core of this belief. Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe that the Messiah will come before the end of this world. While we have different messianic expectations and interpretations, we are indeed united in our theology of the future.
The Implications of all these links and many others are that: We must dialogue with each other. We must respect each other’s views. We should cooperate in the matters in which we agree. We must work to bring peace and justice for all people in this world. As we care for our own people we should also care for others.
Important Issues for our Concern:
There are many issues that we can emphasize, but I believe that at this time we should focus on the following problems that are contributing to a great deal of frustration in the world.
1. No to intolerance: We should emphasize tolerance and good relations with all people. We are living in this shrinking world of diverse faiths and cultures. We must recognize the rights of others and treat each person and group with honor and respect. Tolerance should not be just a slogan, but it should be put to practice on all levels. Tolerance must be practiced on the levels of individuals, groups as well as states. It should be a political and legal requirement. Tolerance should be between the members of the same community and same religion, as well as between the people of different faiths and cultures. Tolerance is not the sign of weakness in faith; it is the sign of strength and confidence in faith.
2. No to false propaganda: We emphasize that people must be free to express their ideas and feelings. They should have full right to differ and disagree, but they must express themselves with truth and decency. Dehumanization and daemonization of others, false propaganda and deliberate distortion of others views and traditions must stop. These things create alienation and anger. The media is a powerful tool and it can help in building bridges of understanding and co-existence between various religious and cultural communities. Media and entertainment industry should be careful not to feed people by misinformation and propaganda against other religions and cultures. We must work hard to expose the false propaganda and stand against it. Of course we ourselves should not be engaged in false propaganda against others either.
3. No to domination and hegemony: We should emphasize cooperation and collaboration and must stand against domination and hegemony. Justice, fair dealing, live and let live should be emphasized rather than the push for control and power. We should give a clear message that all human beings should be treated with respect and dignity. No race should enslave other races and no country has a right to dominate the whole globe. Modernization does not necessarily mean westernization and globalization should not mean the domination of one group over the whole globe.
4. No to exploitation and extortion: The gap between the have and have-not should be reduced. We must see that all human beings have the opportunity to live with dignity. Deprivation and poverty are main contributing factors for much of the discontent and violence today in our world. Governments are willing to spend billions on weapons, military buildups and wars, but very little for the economic well beings of the poor people in their own societies and around the globe.
5. No to immoral behavior: We should promote ethical and moral behavior in our communities and neighborhood. Honesty, truthfulness, courtesy and kindness should be emphasized. We must promote good family values and must work with others to remove pornography and indecency from the world. We must encourage and support the educational system that promotes openness, dialogue and guards against fanaticism. Our educational system should not teach every view in the absolutist terms. Our students should be taught that there could be various perspectives and one should be open to other points of view. We should also promote human rights of all people, more political freedom, open debates, participatory democracies and representative governments. Hypocrisy and the double standards of the governments, the powerful states and multinational corporations must be exposed and must be stopped.
6. No to violence: We must emphasize to ourselves and to the world that violence is not the way to solve any problem. Violence must be rejected in all forms and by all human beings. Individuals, groups and nations all should learn to solve their problems peacefully through dialogues and negotiations. Terrorism and violence against innocent non-combatants and civilians is immoral and evil. It must be condemned wherever it exists. All terrorism –whether committed by groups or states- must be eliminated from the world. All weapons of mass destruction from every part of the world must be destroyed. It should be illegal for all nations and countries to invent, produce, sell, buy or acquire such weapons. No nation has a right to own such weapons.