Church of England: Wants to Apologize to Muslims

[Guest BlackJesus]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050919/wl_uk_afp/iraqbritainreligion_050919092519"]http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...on_050919092519[/url]

[quote][u]Church of England offers to meet Muslim leaders to apologize for Iraq war
Sep 19, 2005
Yahoo News
[/u]

LONDON (AFP) - The Church of England offered to take the lead in reconciling with Muslims by apologizing to their leaders for the US-led war in Iraq if the British government fails to do so.

The proposal was contained in a report, entitled "Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post-9/11" which written by a working group of the Church of England's House of Bishops.

"We do believe that the church has a visionary role for reconciliation, beyond that of any government," the Bishop of Oxford, Right Reverend Richard Harris, told BBC radio.

"The Christian church in particular has a mandate to work for reconciliation," he said Monday.

The report suggests that a "truth and reconciliation" meeting between Christian and Muslim leaders would be an opportunity to apologize for the way the West has contributed to the tragedy in Iraq, including the March 2003 invasion led by the United States and Britain.

The Church of England, which lies at the heart of the worldwide Anglican communion, has been openly critical of the war in Iraq, claiming the invasion failed to meet the criteria of a "just war".

The meeting is offered as a solution to the moral dilemma that members of the church who opposed the war find themselves in.

The bishops say to pull out of Iraq without a stable democracy being in place would be irresponsible and compound the misery of the Iraqi people. But to stay suggests collusion with a "gravely mistaken" war.

If collusion is a necessary evil, the report says, there needs to be a degree of public recognition of the West's responsibility for the predicament.

The report highlights a "long litany of errors" in the West's handling of Iraq which includes its support of     Saddam Hussein over many years as a strategic ally against     Iran, its willingness to sell him weapons and the suffering caused to the Iraqi people by sanctions.

[b]It goes on to say that the recent invasion appeared to be "as much for reasons of American national interest as it was for the well-being of the Iraqi people".[/b] [i][color="red"]Noooo you don't say[/color][/i]

As Prime Minister Tony Blair's government is unlikely to offer an apology, a meeting of religious leaders would provide a "public act of institutional repentance," it said.[/quote]

[Guest ONYX]

BREAKING NEWS:
Church of America Pastor Pat Robertson says the U.S should assassinate
the leaders of the Church of England. That coming up right after the game, except for those who live on the west coast.

[|Lucid|]

Perhaps the Church of England should start by apologizing for Englands' re-drawing of national boundaries in the middle east after WWI which is a major reason for a lot of the problems over there in the first place..

Or maybe they could do something to help iron out the problems between Palestine and Isreal, since the United Kingdom was the driving force in that mess as well...

Or maybe they should really get the ball rolling in the right direction by apologizing for that whole "Crusades" debacle that they initiated that made that region hate the west so much in the first place...





HMMM... Sure seems that the Church of England has it's hands full without even trying to apologize for ANYTHING the U.S. has done.


[img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/30.gif[/img]

[Guest steggyD]

Now now, let's not bring up all the history that leads to today's tensions. Everyone just woke up mad at each other a few years ago, right?