São Paulo – Eight hundred years ago, a Christian leader travelled to Egypt on a peace-seeking mission. This was the time of the Crusades – Middle Age military expeditions by Western Christians against Eastern territories. Francis of Assisi’s visit to Muslim religious leader sultan Al-Malik al Kâmil al Ayoubi was a step towards religious tolerance. Now, Franciscans will replicate the gesture by visiting Muslims at the Santo Amaro Mosque (pictured above), in São Paulo.
The event will take place 9pm on the 28th. The invitation by the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception of Brazil has been accepted by the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (Fambras), with backing from the National Islamic Union and of the Muslim Beneficent Society.
If back in 1219, in the time of Francis and the sultan, the visit was set against a backdrop of a war fueled by religious differences, what are the challenges facing this new meeting? “In the world we’re living in today, one out of four people profess Islam, and the biggest religion in the world is Catholicism (Christianity). The inhabitants of this Earth must overlook their differences and focus on the preservation of human beings, first and foremost. This is pro-peace and physical integrity, and anti-violence,” Fambras vice president Ali Zoghbi told ANBA.
In Brazil, 35,167 people declared themselves Muslim in 2010, during the latest Census from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Catholics, including orthodox Catholics and those who profess Brazilian Apostolic Catholic, and Roman Catholic Apostolic amount to 123.97 million people.
For Zoghbi, the message of tolerance is extremely current. “Especially since our Brazilian society is so polarized. It’s important in order for us to convey the message that the well-meaning people are together. A harmonic society with social justice. One that builds bridges, not walls,” he said.
Besides attending prayer at night in the Mosque, the Franciscans and Muslims will chant Arab chants and songs from the Franciscan parish. They’ll also subscribe to a document expressing willingness to uphold Muslim-Christian dialogue. The declaration will be signed by sheik Mohamed al Bukai, sister Cleusa Aparecida Neves, president of the Conference of the Franciscan Family in Brazil (CFFB), and friar César Külkamp, president of the Conference of Friars Minor in Brazil (CFMB).
The document will also suggest future events. One possibility is for the Muslims to visit the São Bento Monastery in São Paulo; Zoghbi regards the meeting as an opportunity to show willingness to promote interreligious dialogue. “We’re alive in a hard time marked by religious intolerance, and we must fight it. As for islamophobia, we’ll conquer this type of prejudice through opportunities to demonstrate the true Islam – a religion that promotes peace, tolerance, compassion, social justice and above all the preservation of life,” a written statement quoted him as saying.
Watch a video of sheikh Mohamed al Bukai inviting people to the event:
Reported events of religious intolerance in São Paulo doubled to 562 reports in the first four months of 2019, from 280 reports in the year-ago period.
On September 20, the state of São Paulo began enforcing administrative sanctions for acts of discrimination for religious reasons. Reports can be made to the Secretariat for Justice and Citizenship’s Internal Affairs Department, via the Interreligious Forum for a culture of Peace and Freedom of Belief, at this website.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
