A joint commission of Catholic and Muslim scholars wrapped up a two-day meeting Feb. 25 at the Vatican, agreeing on the need to engage in “self-criticism and to struggle against stereotypes and generalizations.” The meeting wasn't without some generalizations of its own, however, as leaders involved in the formal dialogue agreed they must be willing to examine their own history and teaching for signs of prejudice as part of their work in promoting understanding and respect between Catholics and Muslims.

The joint committee between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Permanent Committee of al-Ahzar for Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions met for the eighth time in six years.

The meeting is usually held around Feb. 24, the anniversary of a private meeting in 1998 between Pope John Paul II and Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Egypt's ancient al-Ahzar University.

The committee has a narrower mandate than the more institutional Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee, which met here a month earlier.

Speaking to the Register after the meeting, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, noted there is “a tendency today to stereotype different religions.” He said the concern at this meeting was “mainly to help the formation of religious leaders through a dialogical attitude in order to counter this stereotypying.”

“There is some way to go,” he added. “We are placing small bricks on the way to building something.”

The archbishop highlighted references made during the meeting to reconciliation efforts by the Catholic Church in the Jubilee Year and the need for “Koranic culture” to foster respect for people and human dignity. “We will keep working at it,” he pledged.

The committee's purpose is to “foster research into common values, work for the promotion of justice and peace, and for the promotion of respect for religions.”

According to Archbishop Fitzgerald, it provides “a forum for exchanges on matters of mutual interest, such as the defense of human dignity and of human rights, and the promotion of mutual knowledge and respect among Catholics and Muslims.”

One particular concern is that many Muslims continue to hold outdated views of Christians. “One has to keep in mind that in most Muslim countries the term ‘Christian’ is still identified with either colonialism or, as is the case lately, with the Crusades,” said Dominican Father Joseph Ellul, professor of ecumenical theology and Islamic studies at the Angelicum (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome). “This holds true especially in the ongoing struggle between Islam and the West.”

Such perceptions are of particular concern to Sheikh Fawzi Fadel al-Zafzaf, president of the al-Azhar permanent committee, who said during the meeting that religious persons in particular “must be careful not to generalize” and added that “it is necessary to distinguish between the sources of religions and the particular conduct of their followers.”

Another speaker,Youssef Kamal El-Hage, a Catholic professor at Notre Dame of Lebanon University, said “self-criticism is absent between Christians and Muslims and it is a real obstacle to dialogue.”

However, he singled out the significance of the Second Vatican Council's declaration Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions), which affirms that the Church regards Muslims “with esteem,” and he underlined John Paul's special dedication to Islam.

Such conciliatory statements imply that the concerns over prejudice against each other's religion are perhaps more applicable to society as a whole than among religious leaders.

It was a point not overlooked by Archbishop Fitzgerald, who called on the help of the media “to simplify and to give serious presentations of the other religions.”

But some believe fair representations in the media of the various monotheistic religions have been all too rare. Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Yale University professor and chair of the media committee of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, said Muslims are often “vilified” in the media, including in the United States.

“What they want to portray is that the world's 1.3 million Muslims want to massacre the Jews,” said Qumsiyeh, who is a Palestinian Christian. He said the media “tends to forget the context” in which Palestinian suicide bombers find themselves.

“You rarely hear that there are thousands of Palestinians living in enclaves in conditions worse than the Warsaw ghetto,” Qumsiyeh said.

Yet Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders cannot be totally absolved of guilt in this respect, as al-Azhar's Sheikh Fawzi al-Zafzaf pointed out.

“Unfortunately, the question of making generalizations — promoting stereotypes — is very current,” the Muslim leader said, “even among religious leaders who should take more care.”

Edward Pentin writes from Rome. (Zenit and CNS contributed to this story.)