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Last update - 22:24 05/06/2008 A rabbi, an imam and a priest discuss their 'painful verses' By The Associated Press Tags: painful verses, Imam, rabbi  A rabbi, an imam and a priest on Thursday sat down to discuss the most sensitive parts of their sacred scriptures, the verses that offend or anger other faiths. But instead of the Catholic criticizing Koran quotes or the Jew complaining about a Gospel, each took objectionable passages from his own holy book and tried to explain them to the others. "Les Versets douloureux" (The Painful Verses), the result of their work, is an unusual book that aims to move interfaith dialogue beyond polite meetings to discuss issues that create tensions among Christians, Muslims and Jews. Advertisement Rabbi David Meyer, the driving force behind the project, said his frustration with routine interfaith meetings that avoided tough issues prompted him to seek a different kind of dialogue with Sohaib Bencheikh and Rev. Yves Simoens S.J. "For a real dialogue, we have to have the courage to confront difficult things," the rabbi of the International Jewish Center in Brussels said at a presentation of the French-language book in Paris on Thursday. The book marked a new approach in interfaith dialogue. While religious leaders have been meeting for decades, an upswing in contacts in recent years reflects a feeling they need to work even more closely to foster better understanding. Bensheikh, head of the Higher Institute of Islamic Sciences in Marseille, stressed the book was "not a dialogue between institutions. It's the work of three believers, that's all." Meyer said he got the idea when members of his congregation asked how he could dialogue with Muslims when they had passages hostile to Jews in the Koran. "I knew I could find passages in Jewish texts that would make them shudder," he said. Simoens, professor of scripture at the Centre Sevres faculty of philosophy and Catholic theology in Paris, said there was a growing realisation among religions "that the dialogue should be true and not stop just at banalities." One of Islam's "painful verses," Bencheikh said, was the hadith "Kill he who changes his religion." This saying of the Prophet Mohammed is used to outlaw apostasy in some Muslim states and, in a very few, to threaten ex-Muslims with death. "This is an aberration," he said. Apostasy was seen as treason during the turbulent early years when Islam was expanding and faith was equivalent to citizenship in the new empire. This no longer applied in the modern era, he said. Among Meyer's examples was the command in the Torah to the Israelites to wipe out the rival Amalekite tribe, which amounted to asking Jews to commit genocide. Two other "painful verses" were God's command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, which seemed to justify killing in the name of religion, and a Talmudic text allowing Jews to steal from non-Jews, he said. "There is no text without interpretation," said Meyer, who in the book cited several other Jewish writings to provide a wider context that weakened their impact. Simoens argued the Gospel of John, the Evangelist accused of being a source of Christian anti-Semitism, was not anti-Jewish and closely examined many of his verses to illustrate his point. "There are the effects of a vulgarisation of exegesis," he said. He called the view of John as anti-Semitic "an ideology." Asked how widely his liberal views were shared in the Islamic world, Bencheikh said many Muslim states kept tight control over religion and blocked reforms. But he said rigid readings of Islamic texts would give way to deeper interpretations. Islam was in a "tunnel period," he said: "Our generation has lost the erudition of old without replacing it with modern thought." Meyer said the trio hoped the book would be translated into other languages to help dialogue elsewhere in Europe. "It's important to get beyond the French-speaking world," he said. Asked if they planned another book, Meyer was wary of tackling a new project or hitting the usual conference trail. "If we're invited for conferences with dialogue groups, we'll just be preaching to the converted," he said. "The problem is to transmit this message in one's own community," he explained. "We need to communicate this to people who need to hear it. We're thinking how to do this now. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Terrorist donuts U.S. Arabs irate over criticism of celebrity cook's kaffiyeh. All the way to hell Rosner's blog: It's Obama's good intentions that pro-Israel activists fear.   1.   Let`s face it, it is a cover up 20:46  |  Genuine Tosefta 05/06/08   2.   Excellent 21:11  |  David 05/06/08   3.   War on Terror 21:15  |  Matthew Houston 05/06/08   4.   The beggining sounds like a joke 21:15  |  Jean Claude 05/06/08   5.   Ideological Wars in the Family 21:41  |  David Salomon 05/06/08   6.   Judaism and "painful verses" 21:53  |  Jack 05/06/08   7.   good idea 22:24  |  Khalid Amayreh 05/06/08   8.   #2 - 100% right 00:10  |  Adam K 06/06/08   9.   True holy men 01:13  |  Aaron Levitt 06/06/08   10.   Painul to the core 02:46  |  Jack Paulden 06/06/08   11.   A rabbi, an imam and a priest,...where`s the punchline? 03:00  |  Akiva P 06/06/08   12.   Painful because of man`s will, not G-d`s 03:10  |  Jack Paulden 06/06/08   13.   Matthew of Irving Texas....Yes, indeed it is 03:47  |  Lynn 06/06/08   14.   The Ultimate Truth 06:24  |  xtime 06/06/08   15.   Reconcilling the irreconcilable 16:24  |  Ahmed 06/06/08   16.   PAINFUL VERSES 18:07  |  DAVID HARRIS 06/06/08   17.   Encouraging steps 19:09  |  s 06/06/08   18.   We can live together 19:16  |  Joseph 06/06/08   19.   hear hear (#12) 19:39  |  a sometimes reader 06/06/08   20.   There is absolutely nothing in Jewish religious texts 20:17  |  Boris 06/06/08   21.   After the meeting all three blaimed atheists for world`s problems 20:20  |  Boris 06/06/08   22.   blame the atheists 21:10  |  sometimes 06/06/08   23.   2nd Try,all 3 montheistic faiths are homocentric and androcentric 21:29  |  lakshmi 06/06/08   24.   G-D`s Requirement for ALL Religions and All Humanity: KINDNESS 22:07  |  Linda Rivera 06/06/08   25.   I`d like to read the book 22:50  |  Colin Wright 06/06/08   26.   7 Khalid Amaryeh,check my post 23 for an alternative view point! 22:57  |  lakshmi 06/06/08   27.   #24 23:14  |  s 06/06/08   28.   #15 23:29  |  Jack 06/06/08   29.   #20 Boris 01:02  |  MR 07/06/08   30.   #25 Colin 01:06  |  MR 07/06/08

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