By Rev. Dominic V. Monti
Since taking office in January, President Barack Obama has made what some consider to be unusual, even controversial overtures to the Muslim world.
His message of “initiating a new partnership, based on mutual respect and mutual interest” has been consistently communicated, whether in his Inaugural Address, in his landmark January interview on the Al-Arabiya television network, in a speech to the Turkish Parliament in April, or in his June visit to a university in Cairo.
But these overtures are not as unusual or controversial as one may think when viewed from a longer historical context. Almost eight centuries ago – or more precisely 557 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence – another person sought a better understanding of Muslims through the pursuit of an open dialogue. That person is now known as St. Francis of Assisi.
Comparisons of the current day to the times of Francis are uncanny for their similarity. Both periods were affected by war that involved “western” intervention. Today we have conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; in 1219 it was the Fifth Crusade with the goal of Christian control of the Holy Land.
In that year, Francis decided to travel to northern Egypt to meet with Muslim Sultan Malik al-Kamil. It was a time of great peril since the Crusaders had just rejected a peace treaty that would have surrendered Jerusalem to them, instead staying in battle and laying siege to the 80,000 residents in the city of Damietta, located at the mouth of the Nile.
During a lull in the intense fighting, Francis and a companion, Brother Illuminato, successfully crossed enemy lines to engage the Sultan. Since they came with respect and carried no weapons, they were allowed into the Sultan’s camp.
In my book, “Francis & His Brothers,” which was released earlier this year to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Franciscan Order, I noted that Francis did not “encounter the ‘fierce beast’ of crusading propaganda, but a man open to dialogue who was impressed by their genuine concern for his spiritual welfare.”
Although Francis did not obtain the Sultan’s conversion to Christianity in this meeting, which was his primary goal, he instead experienced a conversion of his own.
“He became even more convinced that there was another way to go among the Muslims,” I wrote, “not by preaching the gospel in words, but by simply living out its demands among them, subject to all.”
Francis was also impressed and moved by several values of the Muslim religion and sought to incorporate them into his spiritual life and that of his “Lesser Brothers.” These included the practice of publicly calling people to pray at various times of day; an acute sense of God’s majesty, goodness and transcendence; and the adoration of God with both fear and reverence.
Scholars say Francis and the Sultan created the first real dialogue between Christians and Muslims. In fact, some people believe that Obama is employing St. Francis as his model in his attempts to pursue the same between American and Islamic nations.
As Obama said in his Cairo speech as president: “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”
It would not be the first time an individual has followed the example of St. Francis in reaching out to different and opposing cultures to discover a common ground and to gain a better understanding.
Maybe the seeds for this latest effort can be traced to his first two years of grade school, when a very young Barack Obama attended a Catholic elementary school while living in Indonesia, the largest Muslim populated nation in the world.
The name of that school was St. Francis of Assisi Foundation School.
Rev. Dominic V. Monti is vicar provincial for the Franciscans of Holy Name Province, which sponsors St. Bonaventure Church in Paterson, St. Anthony Church in Butler, St. Joseph’s Church in East Rutherford, St. Mary’s Church in Pompton Lakes, Assumption of Our Lady Church in Wood-Ridge, Holy Name Community Skilled Nursing Home in Ringwood and St. Anthony’s Guild in East Rutherford.