Aref Ali Nayed, Senior Advisor to the Cambridge Interfaith Program, was asked by the Chairman of the World Islamic Call Society to address the 8th General Conference of Islamic Call (meeting in Tripoli between 27th and 30th of October), regarding “A Common Word”. On Wednesday, Nayed addressed the General Conference summarizing the “A Common Word” process, highlighting the achievements of the Yale and Cambridge conferences. He made special mention of the many positive Christian responses to the initiative, and gave special thanks Lambeth, Cambridge, Princeton, Yale, PISAI, and Georgetown for their key support. He outlined the promise and challenges of the dialogue track with the Vatican, and stressed the importance of the upcoming Catholic-Muslim Forum. Nayed appealed for unity and coordination of the multiple Christian-Muslim dialogue tracks, and asked for the support of the hundreds of scholars assembled for the General Conference, to whom copies of relevant “A Common Word” documentation were distributed. The more than 460 Islamic organizations and associations, representing various continents, as well as international and regional bodies, positively responded to the appeal, and in line with the World Islamic Society’s ongoing support for the ‘A Common Word’ initiative, declared formal support for the initiative. Here is a quote from the “Final Statement and Recommendations of the 8th General Conference of the World Islamic Call Society”:
“The Conference declares its support for the “A Common Word” initiative, and expresses its appreciation for the positive responses to it. It further calls for working through that initiative in order to widen the scope of mutual understanding and cooperation between Muslim and Christian institutions.”
The Chairman of the World Islamic Call Society asked Nayed to convey the Society’s and Conference’s support for the initiative to his fellow scholars traveling to Rome and to the Vatican. He also asked Nayed to help prepare for the upcoming Vatican – WICS meeting, in order to further the dialogue process between the Vatican and WICS that has been going on since the 1976 Tripoli – Libya Dialogue Seminar.