This is the first time that a supreme head of the Catholic Church has visited Bahrain, this small country in the Persian Gulf, mainly Muslim.

Pope Francis advocated, Friday, November 4, fraternity and the fight against extremism during a meeting with Muslim dignitaries and the Grand Imam of the mosque of al-Azhar, high institution of Sunnism, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb .  

This four-day visit is an opportunity for the pope to insist on the "dialogue" between religions and civilizations, he who fears a return to the "cold war" in an increasingly divided world.  

"The powerful are concentrating in a resolute struggle for partisan interests (...) by redrawing areas of influence and opposing blocs", lamented the Argentinian Jesuit at the end of an interfaith summit in Awali.  

According to him, this logic is expressed in particular by an opposition between "the East and the West", which "look more and more like two opposite seas", an allusion to the conflict in Ukraine denounced tirelessly by Pope Francis since the invasion of the country by Moscow at the end of February.  

"We play with fire with missiles and bombs, with weapons that cause tears and death," lamented François, who has consistently denounced the use of force and the nuclear threat. 

A private interview with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar

For the pope, "the religious man, the man of peace, is also opposed to the race for rearmament, to the affairs of war, to the death market", an allusion to the Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill, close support of Vladimir Putin who supports Moscow's offensive while Jorge Bergoglio has always refused to take sides. 

In the middle of the afternoon, the sovereign pontiff spoke in private with the grand imam of al-Azhar.

The two men, who had signed a founding document on human fraternity in Abu Dhabi, greeted each other with a warm hug.  

"This meeting is of great symbolic importance, both locally and internationally, to promote the roots of peace and the principles of peaceful coexistence among different religions and civilizations," Hala Ramze Fayez told AFP. , MP from Bahrain, Christian.  

Before the Sunni and Shiite dignitaries of the "Council of Muslim Elders" meeting at the Mosque of the Royal Palace, the Pope defended "reconciliation" in the face of the "instrumentalization" of religious beliefs.  

Coming "like a brother", he called for not giving in "to the reasons of force, which fuel violence, war, the arms market and the death trade". 

"Right to life" 

Francis was then to preside over an ecumenical prayer at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, the largest Catholic church on the peninsula, inaugurated at the end of 2021.  

The visit, the Pope's second to the Arabian Peninsula since his historic trip to the United Arab Emirates in 2019, comes amid calls from NGOs denouncing political repression and discrimination against the Shia community in the 1,000 island country. 4 million inhabitants, ruled by a Sunni dynasty.  

Before the authorities on Thursday, the leader of the 1.3 billion Catholics called for "that fundamental human rights are not violated, but promoted" and defended "the right to life", while the death penalty is still in force in the kingdom.  

Bahrain, which formalized diplomatic ties with the Holy See in 2000, "has some of the strongest and broadest human rights and criminal justice protections in the region," the minister told AFP. 'Economy and Finance, Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa.  

This is the 39th trip abroad of the Argentine sovereign pontiff.

Since his election in 2013, he has visited a dozen Muslim-majority countries, including Egypt, Turkey and Iraq. 

With AFP

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