A Common Word (2007)

A Common Word, issued in October 2007, is a statement of peace and friendship, signed by more than 130 Muslim scholars from all traditions, and addressed to Christian leaders around the world.

The statement generated diverse and significant responses, gathered and recorded with assistance from the Cambridge Interfaith Programme. For example:

  • H.H. Pope Benedict XVI and sixty other leading Christian figures responded to the document in the two years following its issue.
  • A Common Word has been the subject of major international conferences at Yale University, the University of Cambridge—facilitated by CIP, Lambeth Palace and Georgetown University.
  • Over 600 articles—carried by thousands of press outlets—have been written about A Common Word in English alone.
  • Over 200,000 people have visited the official website.
  • Over 6000 people have ‘fully endorsed’ A Common Word online.

Further information

The statement, responses and impact are all documented at the dedicated website, www.aCommonWord.com.

Read the response from Professor David Ford (CIP Director, 2002-2015) at ACommonWord.com.

“Human Dignity and Mutual Respect”, an address given by Abdal Hakim Murad at the First Catholic–Muslim Forum (archived at TheMathesonTrust.org), Rome, 5 November 2008. (Abdal Hakim Murad is Skeykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he is known as Dr Tim Winter.)

A conference of Muslims and Christians was convened by the Cambridge Interfaith Programme to discuss A Common Word. Read an official communiqué from that 2008 conference at aCommonWord.com.