The Islamic Studies Association, Delhi, and the Jesuit Secretariat for Service of Faith in South Asia, jointly organized a series of webinars to celebrate Human Fraternity Day. The Human Fraternity day is celebrated on 4th February every year. This year, three well-respected international speakers — Professors Edward Joseph Alam (Notre dame University, Beirut, Lebanon), Gabriel Said Reynolds (University of Notre dame, Indiana, USA) and Christian S. Krokus (University of Scranton, USA)— presented the webinars on the following themes: The Future of Christianity in West Asia (Lebanon and Syria): Fears and Hopes; The Biblical Material Present in the Qur’ân: Perspectives for theological engagements with Islam and Christian de Cherge: His Spirituality and its Relevance respectively.
Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar signed the Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together accord at Abu Dhabi. This important initiative for world peace marked the 800th anniversary of the meeting of St Francis with Sultan al-Malik al-Kamal. The Human Fraternity document invites Christians and Muslims to work for reconciliation and fraternity among all believers, indeed among believers and non-believers, and among all people of good will. A year later on 21st December 2021, the UN declared February 4th as the International Day of Human Fraternity. Taking inspiration from the teachings of Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and responding to the call of the UN to promote the spirit of reconciliation and fraternity among all men and women, the Islamic Studies Association, Delhi, and the Jesuit Secretariat for Service of Faith in South Asia organized this webinar. The participants appreciated both the quality of presentations and interactions between resource persons and participants after each webinar.
Sch. Paul Anand, SJ
Bengaluru
