Azerbaijan, Baku, May 13 / Trend , U.Sadikova /
The Pope's visit to the Middle East is not the beginning of an inter-religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims, but would be aimed at solving the political problems of the region, said Hassan Abu Niameh, Director of the Jordanian Royal Institute for Inter-faith Affairs.
"The Pope's visit [to the Middle East] is not the beginning of a dialogue between Christians and Muslims, because the dialogue has already been existing long ago, Abu Niameh told Trend in a telephone conversation from Amman on May 12. - The Pope's visit is important from a religious point of view, but we would like it [the visit] to be a political one, because this is that most people are concerned by."
Last week the Head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI began the first tour to the Middle East, firstly visiting Jordan.
However, according to the press service of the Vatican, the visit of Pope seeks to support Christian communities in the Middle East, Al Jazeera television channel reported. From Amman pontifex went to the holy land in Palestine and Israel.
The visit of the Head of the Roman Catholic Church to Israel began with his statement that anti-Semitism is totally unacceptable in any form and in any part of the world. He also said that it needs to remember the rights of the Palestinians to establish their own state, BBC Russian website reported.
The Head of the Jordanian Institute Abu Niameh added that the Christian population of the Middle East, as well as Muslims and Jews, would like the Pope's visit to take a political nature and help solve political conflicts in the region.
"People are more concerned by the problems caused by the prolonged Israeli occupation of the region, human rights violations in the occupied [Palestinian] territories - said Abu Niameh - as well as multi-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which hurts Muslims, Christians of the region."
During the last stay in Jordan within the tour to the Middle East, pontifex stressed the importance of cooperation and peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, BBC Russian website reported.
Abu Niameh added that inter-religious dialogue should cover all religions, not only Christians and Muslims.
"The visit of Pope focuses more on the dialogue of Christians and Muslims, since he [pontifex] is a representative of the Catholic world - Abu Niameh said, adding that this visit could be the beginning of studying the dialogue of Muslims and Christians. - But to complete the inter-religious dialogue it is necessary to touch upon all sides, the dialogue can not be limited to one or two religions.
However, in the Islamic world, not all welcomed the visit of the Pope to the Middle East, referring to criticism of pontifex addressed to the Muslims and Islam three years ago. Then Benedict XVI said that "Muhammad brought evil and war to this world", accusing the Muslims of the world's current conflicts.
Observers say that the Vatican does not know with whom from the Muslim world to hold dialogue, since there are various currents of Islam in major Muslim countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Abu Niameh considers that all Muslims demonstrate single position of Islam, but the expression of different opinions and views by the Muslims is evidence of a democratic society.
"Islam is single, but there are different currents in the religion, and this means that Islam respects the variety of human opinion," said Abu Niameh.
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