The Pontiff and the Ayatollah

In a region often seen through the prism of recurring nasty conflict based on a religious divide, the coming together of leaders of two opposing faiths must qualify as more than just a breath of fresh air.

This week’s historic meeting between Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic Pontiff and His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Sistani in Iraq’s holy city, Najaf, marks a significant milestone in the history of Muslim-Christian ties.

In recent years, relations between the world’s two major religions – Islam and Christianity – have been strained notably in the Middle East amid recurring tensions, armed conflict and bloodshed.

To make a fresh start, 84-year-old Pope Francis endured the journey from Rome to Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, and was visibly seen limping along on the tarmac with reported sciatica pain.

The high point of the trip came just a day later when the Pope met with 90-year-old Ayatollah Sistani, the highest ranking Shia Muslim religious leader, widely respected for his simple lifestyle, wealth of knowledge and a commitment to the protection of human life irrespective of faith.

The Pope’s trip took him to some of the most heavily devastated areas in northern Iraq, once home to large numbers of Christians. Many Christians have either fled to other parts of Iraq or left the country as the Islamic state led militants attacked heavily populated areas.

The Pope’s first hand exposure to the devastation which began with a US military invasion on the pretext of never to be found weapons of mass destruction, marks an eye opener for a Western leader. Though he also met with Iraq’s political leaders including the president and the prime minister, the high point was nevertheless his meeting with Ayatollah Sistani.

The visit has laid the ground for other initiatives aimed at closing the divide between Muslims and Christians, both across the Islamic world and the West. For the past few decades, communities of Muslims in countries like France have battled attacks on issues ranging from their attire, notably the ‘hijab’ to the offence brought upon Muslims worldwide through the publication of blasphemous material.

In contrast, the targeting of non-Muslims including Christians across the Islamic world are legitimate concerns for leaders like Pope Francis. In a country like Pakistan, to name an example right at home, a range of cases have witnessed Christians charged with blasphemy on questionable grounds.

The August 2012 case of 14-year-old Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl from an impoverished family in Islamabad, continues to stand out as an example of miscarriage of justice. By some accounts, the teenager who was accused of desecrating pages of the Holy Quran may have suffered from Down’s syndrome, and therefore incapable of making rational choices.

Reports then also surfaced of a key witness in her case later confessing to having planted evidence with a view to incriminate her. Rimsha Masih’s life and the lives of her immediate family members became endangered to the extent that they all had to migrate to Canada for their safety. There are many other cases of targeted individuals, according to documented reports.

The case of Pakistan stands alongside similar examples of Christians targeted in other Islamic countries, notwithstanding the commitments made by their governments to international conventions giving protection to members of all religions.

The matter of tackling a religious divide in today’s world is neither simple nor likely to be solved expeditiously and fairly. However, the meeting between Pope Francis and Ayatollah Sistani could mark a first important step towards a wider dialogue that must be relentlessly pursued.

Such a dialogue must be expanded to protect individuals persecuted anywhere around the world in the name of religion. In the past year, the increasingly harsh persecution of Muslims in Kashmir with the Indian government’s forceful pursuit of changing the status of the mountainous valley, has repeatedly exposed the double standards of a country that prides itself as the world’s largest democracy.

For Pakistan, expanding on this week’s historic Papal visit to Iraq, with the pursuit of more dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims carries possible dividends in areas at the centre of Islamabad’s policy interests. And following the Pope’s visit to Iraq, a future Papal visit to Pakistan may well be an idea worth pursuing by Islamabad.

The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who writes on political and economic affairs.

Email: farhanbokhari@gmail.com