The Vatican is hosting a group of Islamic scholars in the first Catholic-Muslim forum aimed at improving relations between the world’s two largest faiths.
The three-day meeting comes two years after Pope Benedict upset the Muslim world with a speech in which he implied that Islam was violent and irrational.
After that incident 38 Muslim scholars invited Christian churches to a new dialogue to foster mutual respect through a better understanding of each other’s faiths.
At the opening of the forum, the Muslims argued that both religious groups shared a love of God and neighbour.
The meeting, including an audience with Pope Benedict, is the group’s third conference with Christians after talks with United States Protestants in July and Anglicans last month.