A reader sent me this link on the Economist:
This week saw the latest such attempt at an exchange of ideas, as an open letter from leading Muslim scholars to the Jewish community was unveiled in Cambridge, Britain. It follows a somewhat similar initiative that was launched last October, when 138 leading Muslims wrote to the leaders of the Christian world, proposing a formal dialogue based on the commandments of Jesus to love God and one another. The original letter was entitled “A Common Word between Us and You”. At first the Vatican reacted coolly, but Pope Benedict XVI eventually agreed to receive some of the signatories.
The signatories of this week’s letter include Tariq Ramadan, an influential scholar and teacher among Western (especially west European) Muslims; Mustafa Ceric, the grand mufti of Bosnia; and Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian professor from al-Quds university in Jerusalem. “As Muslims and Jews we share core doctrinal beliefs, the most important of which is strict monotheism”, the missive states—after explaining that it is being published “as a gesture of goodwill towards rabbinic leaders and the wider Jewish communities of the world.”
Bizarrely, I haven’t seen much coverage of this. Here’s the website for The Centre for the study of Muslim-Jewish Relations.
Keith Kahn-Harris has a related article about peace in the Middle East on Liberal Conspiracy.