When 300 religious leaders gathered for a three-day meeting along the Naples' seashore, they focussed on a common hope for peace while exploring some of their differences.

At the Oct 21-23 inter-religious dialogue for peace, sponsored by the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Community, they presented their own teachings, asked what the others taught and offered each other clarifications.

At an Oct 22 discussion about sacred Scriptures, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of dialogue with other Christians and with the world's Jewish communities, said he thought Muslims approached their sacred book, the Quran, differently from how Christians and Jews approached the Bible.

Christians and Jews, he said, believe the Bible was divinely inspired, but written by humans and therefore must be interpreted. "Isn't the Quran considered not to be inspired but to have been dictated by God?" he asked.

If members of a religion believe their sacred texts were dictated by God, the cardinal said, obviously it is more difficult to argue that new situations and increased knowledge mean the words need to be interpreted in new ways.

Mohammad Sammak, secretary-general of the Lebanese Committee for Muslim-Christian Dialogue, told Cardinal Kasper, "We do not believe the Quran was dictated, but that it was revealed to the prophet Mohammed and was written down."

He said Muslims believe the Quran "is sacred, holy, unchanging and absolute, but understanding it is a human act and, like all human acts, the understanding can be wrong."

Sammak said problems occur "when some Muslims do not differentiate between the holy text and the unholy interpretation of the text. This leads to problems within Islam itself."

Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Communion, told the same discussion group that the holy texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam demonstrate not simply God's oneness, but even more God's faithfulness to a humanity that often rejects him or rebels against him.

The scriptural stories, he said, demonstrate "how God keeps his promises to one group (of people) so that they can share that with others."

The faithfulness of God and his call for humanity to be united in recognising he is the one God "stand against the rivalry and violence in our world and in our own hearts," Archbishop Williams said.

Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa, Israel, said the Scriptures are a divine gift because they provide a way to get to know God and "to make a connection with him."

"If we learn to find our common heritage, we will stop arguing with each other and we will realise there is one God and he is greater than we are," the rabbi said. "It is time we stop competing with each other and study together how God wants us to behave," he said. "May this day come soon."

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Indonesia's Muhammadiyah Muslim movement, told another session of the conference that the number of interreligious dialogues is increasing, but they seem "to have generated little success in removing the prejudices, misconceptions and misunderstanding among people of different religions, especially between Islam and the Christian West."

Religious leaders, he said, must be stronger in opposing the political manipulation of religious sentiments and in condemning those who commit acts of violence in the name of their religion.

They also must help people see Islam and the Judeo-Christian tradition as "partners in a common struggle to preserve the sanctity of religion as a source of common values for mankind," he said.

Oded Weiner, director general of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, told the same session that even when dialogue seems to be a weak instrument in the face of violent clashes religious leaders must continue to live as examples of peace, openness, tolerance and hope.

"A little light repels much darkness," he said. "The light of faith and the light of positive action on the part of religious leaders, as a living and dignified personal example, will help chase away the darkness and the evil in our world."

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told the conference that history has demonstrated that religions can bring out the best or the worst in people.

Ensuring they bring out the best, he said, requires "a collaboration among believers: We are not competitors, but partners in building a humanity where all -- men and women, adults and children -- are able to see each other, listen to each other and make a little progress under the gaze of God."

While some people assume the world would know greater peace if there were no religions, Cardinal Tauran said, Christians, Jews and Muslims cannot accept such a proposition and they must prove to the world that it is not true.

"Human beings cannot be saved, (and) a just world cannot be built by denying the source from which life flows: God," he said.
(CNS)