Throughout history, ties between Christian and Islamic leaders have had more downs than ups. It was Pope Urban II who launched the first Crusade in 1095 triggering almost two centuries of hostilities. But in recent times, relations have largely improved. Pope John Paul II made significant efforts to advance the cause of Catholic-Islamic relations. He condemned the siege of Sarajevo repeatedly. When John Paul II visited Damascus, and prayed at the Umayyad Mosque in 2001, it was the first ever Papal visit to a mosque. Pope Benedict XVI prayed in the Blue or Sultan Ahmet Mosque in his visit to Istanbul in 2006.

However, Benedict’s gesture was in large part to make up for what was seen as a disastrous Regensburg address in September 2008. In the speech, he cited a conversation between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian scholar, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Most Muslims took offence at what they perceived to be the Pope arguing that Islam was inherently violent and evil. The former Pope perhaps to heal ties then changed his position from opposing Turkish entry to the European Union to supporting it. Relations with Al Azhar also were put on pause after Pope Benedict called for the protection of Egyptian Christians after an attack on a Coptic church in 2011. Benedict as a German Pope tended to see everything through a very Eurocentric prism.

Pope Francis has over the last seven years made strenuous efforts to reset ties. Aside from his meetings with the Grand Shaikh of Al Azhar, he has reached out to many figures in the Islamic World. In 2014, he visited Palestine and met with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein. This year he made the first ever Papal visit to Iraq in March and was able to sit down with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, one of the pre-eminent clerics in Shia Islam. Islamic prayers were uttered within the walls of the Vatican for the first time ever back in 2014.

The Vatican-Azhar ties were most profoundly illustrated when Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed signed the document on “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” in February 2019. The introduction described the document as “…a joint declaration of good and heartfelt aspirations. It is a document that invites all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together so that it may serve as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect…” This formed the basis for an ensuing Papal encyclical entitled, “Fratelli tutti” that was certainly forward thinking.

Productive ties between leaders of different religious traditions matter. One hopes that they retain a positive influence amongst their flock. Who knows if some of the more extreme elements might turn their heads when Popes, Grand Ayatollahs and Grand Muftis work together? One can only hope that increasingly such comings together include senior Jewish and other religious figures from other faiths.

In Europe and North American anti-Islamic sentiment is rife. It has existed of course for centuries in differing forms but in the modern era the events of 1979 and 2001 certainly drove Islamophobia on. The Iranian Revolution saw a major rift with the West and notably the U.S. which continues today. The fatwa against the author Salman Rushdie did not help at all nor did the Danish cartoons crisis, both issues where the divides were considerable. The 9/11 attacks triggered huge anger in the U.S. and elsewhere but also a series of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere which saw hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilian lives lost.

The Islamist extremist attacks by the likes of Al Qaida and Daesh also drove these sentiments. The world stood with Paris, Berlin and London as they suffered vile attacks with major landmarks being lit up.

Much of the above anger is understandable. Such attacks were unconscionable. But the 9/11 attacks did not represent Islam and nor does Al Qaida and Daesh. For the overwhelming majority of Muslims, they are an abomination. Even Donald Trump pointed out that the greatest victims of Al Qaida and Daesh violence have been Muslims. However, at a public level, this is rarely understood. All too often the Western media focusses intently on the western victims of Islamist violence not the Muslims. Daesh’s beheadings of western journalists and aid workers in Syria led to military intervention but little was said of the much larger numbers of Syrians and Iraqis beheaded and even crucified by the group.

However, too many leaders in Europe and North America instrumentalized this hatred as opposed to calming the situation and directing the struggle at those truly responsible. It was more convenient to depict Islam and Muslims as a threat than as part of the solution. This continues today as the likes of Viktor Orban of Hungary likes to portray his country as the last bastion of Christendom against the hordes of Islam as if Vienna was back under Ottoman siege once more. “Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? There is no alternative, and we have no option but to defend our borders.”

Anti-Immigration like Islamophobia is a vote winner. Hence Muslim immigrants are doubly vulnerable to this, depicted as a cultural, economic and a terrorist threat.’

Anti-Immigration like Islamophobia is a vote winner. Hence Muslim immigrants are doubly vulnerable to this, depicted as a cultural, economic and a terrorist threat’ even though research shows that every act of terrorism in the U.S. since 9/11 has been committed by a citizen or legal resident. The threat is not foreign as the far right likes to portray. But blame the immigrant anyway.

The treatment of refugees is also damning, not least when European powers do so little to help those making the terrifying dangerous Mediterranean crossings. Few make the difference between migrants and refugees, those fleeing conflicts and oppression. Our societies are the poorer for putting up walls, physical and psychological. We need to explore other means of resolving these crises without having to resort to inhuman incarceration or refusing to help save lives of innocent people.

Pope Francis tried to play a positive role. In 2016, he washed the feet of 12 immigrants, some of whom were Muslim and following a visit to the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, he arranged for the Vatican to host 12 Syrian Muslim refugees. But did this get the attention it deserved, and did it stem in any meaningful way the tidal wave of anti-Muslim, anti-immigration hatred? The Pope called on every Catholic diocese to host refugees but the take up was very poor.

Islamophobia still does not get the attention it merits. Many belittle the issue and fail to recognize how widespread this issue has become. Social media is a cesspool of hatred on all issues. In the first 24 hours after the Christchurch mosques’ massacres in 2019, Facebook removed 1,500,000 videos of the attack that killed 50 Muslims. Some uploads were watched over 20,000 times.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not help. Extremists feel empowered by conflicts to vent their hatred. Jewish communities in Europe are not responsible for Israeli crimes, just as Muslims worldwide are not responsible for the crimes of Al Qaida and Daesh.

Pope Francis’s recent trip to Iraq is considered of historical importance both for its strong symbolic message and its political and diplomatic impact on regional developments. During his trip, which lasted three days (March 5-8), the highest authority of the Catholic Church visited the main cities and key places of Christianity in Iraq and held important meetings.

It is certainly not the first time that a pope expresses his will to visit Iraq, the land of the prophet Abraham and a country that has been tormented by many wars. Indeed, back in 1999, Pope John Paul II had to give up the idea for safety reasons. Pope Francis announced his arrival in Iraq on his so-called pastoral journey in a video-message by saying, “I come as a penitent pilgrim to implore forgiveness and reconciliation from the Lord after years of war and terrorism; to ask God for the consolation of hearts and the healing of wounds.”

The final goal of the trip was to bring comfort to Iraqis and especially to the Christians among them who have suffered from harsh persecution and destruction at the hands of Daesh (ISIS). In the spirit of solidarity and goodwill, Pope Francis declared, “From you, millennia ago, Abraham began his journey. Today, it is up to us to continue it, with the same spirit, along the paths of peace together!” The same words were taken up by the highest Iraqi institutional leaders. Both the President of the Republic Barham Salih and Prime Minister al-Kadhimi expressed their confidence that the visit is a message of peace for Iraqis of all religions and that it will help consolidate domestic and regional stability.

The supreme pontiff aimed to reaffirm the Christian presence as an important element of both the country’s and the region’s population. Hence, his first stopover in Baghdad was the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation, where a meeting with the exponents of the Christian community took place. Throughout recent history, Christian groups in Iraq have suffered and been forced to flee – especially after the fall of S H, following the U.S. invasion in 2003. From that moment, a spiral of violence and ethnic conflict began.

It is estimated that during Saddam’s regime, more than one million Christians lived in Iraq while nowadays they are around 300,000.

The massive destruction and hate campaign launched by Daesh has contributed to the further tearing apart of an already bleeding country. In recent years, many Iraqis have been forced to leave their homes and Christians, in particular, have been badly affected by the wartime conditions. It is estimated that during Saddam’s regime, more than one million Christians lived in Iraq while nowadays they are around 300,000. Currently, Iraqi law declares that “each Iraqi has the right to freely exercise his religion.” Islam, however, is “the state religion and the most important source for legislation” according to Article 2 of the Constitution of Iraq.

The pope’s visit to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf is considered the turning point of the visit to Iraq. Pope Francis is the first supreme pontiff and state representative to meet with Ayatollah Sistani. This is both a religious and political event. From the perspective of interreligious dialogue, their private conversation aimed at reaffirming the equality of all ethnic and religious components of Iraq and the region.

On the other hand, to achieve peace, the ayatollah has shown a preference to dialogue with the pope: the former signed a tacit pact of collaboration, which sounds like a subtle accusation against Tehran. “I hope that religious and spiritual leaders will urge interested parties, and especially the great powers, to give priority to reason and wisdom by renouncing the language of war.… [they] should not put their own interests first at the expense of the rights of peoples to live in freedom and with dignity,” the note reads.

The pope’s journey continued to Mosul and to Qaraqosh, the largest Christian-populated city of Iraq, whose biggest sanctuary was burned and desecrated by Daesh in the summer of 2014, forcing thousands of people to flee. However, the exodus of Christians from these lands is in continuity with the past – Christians were also forced to flee following the U.S.-led military operations “Desert Storm” in 1990 and “Iraqi Freedom” in 2003.

The last stopover for Pope Francis was Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), where he celebrated a public mass in the Franso Hariri Stadium. Afterwards, he welcomed the father of Alan Kurdi, the child who became a symbol of the tragedy endured by refugees as he was found dead on Turkish shores after their boat to Europe capsized.

The pope also visited a refugee camp that hosts displaced people who have fled Daesh. In the short period of three days, Pope Francis highlighted some of the deepest fractures and cleavages of our times in gestures symbolizing the flourishing of life over destruction and terrorism.

Pope Francis tried to bring hope and a spirit of unity to a region of the world where leaders do not go and where their efforts have proven unsuccessful. However, in this relaxed and festive atmosphere, there was margin for manipulation and an unfortunate attempt took place that aimed to create further problems and divisions.