Muslim scholars to meet Pope

Thu Oct 30, 2008
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - Muslim scholars make a rare visit to the Vatican next week to discuss with Pope Benedict and Roman Catholic experts how to overcome mutual suspicion and ignorance between Christianity and Islam.

Twenty-four signatories of A Common Word, a Muslim call to dialogue with Christianity issued last year, will assemble in Rome from around the Islamic world for the November 4-6 talks, the first annual meeting of a new Catholic-Muslim Forum.

The meeting, following talks with U.S. Protestants in July and Anglicans earlier this month, will take place one week before Saudi King Abdullah visits the United Nations to promote a parallel interfaith dialogue he launched last summer. the rest