“Let’s meet in the love of God”: here’s the wish expressed by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, during the audience granted this morning by the Pope to the Islamo-Catholic Forum. “The purpose of peace is shared by our two religions, and we are here just in the hope to obtain peace between Christianity and Islam”, said Nasr to Benedict XVI. After pointing out the aspects that are shared by the religions, Nasr admitted that "both our histories have been interspersed with times of violence, and, when religion was strong in our societies, several political forces committed violence in its name, and sometimes this violence was legitimated by the religious leaders. We can by no means state that violence has been the prerogative of one religion only”. Nasr emphasised the different experiences of Christianity compared with Islam in terms of secular humanism and the rationalism associated with the Enlightenment, adding: “Perhaps we might learn something from each other”. “We should join forces to fight secularisation and the anti-religious forces of the modern world, and this joint effort should bring us closer to each other”. ” “
