ecumenism" "
“We condemn every exploitation of the religious sentiment and every distortion of the teachings of our two faiths”. The condemnation was expressed by representatives of organizations, academics and Christian and Moslem activists at the end of an international consultation held in Geneva in mid-October, on the initiative of the World Council of Churches. The meeting was attended by some 40 delegates with the objective of conducting “a critical examination of the current state of relations between their respective communities and reviewing what has been achieved”. The meeting was moderated by Mohamed S. El-Awa, Egyptian writer and lawyer, and Aram I, catholicos of the Apostolic Armenian Church. The participants in the consultation identified education as one of the priority fields in which the efforts of dialogue should be intensified. Education says the final communiqué is the “ideal place” in which to foster reciprocal trust and understanding which are essential in resisting the temptations to exploit religious differences with destructive aims”. The participants lastly appealed to the political leaders not to have recourse in a “simplistic” way to the demonization of whole religious communities and religious leaders, to “pay more attention to social and economic injustices”, and to resist the “temptation to exploit these injustices to incite religious hatred”.
