ENTREPRENEURS
As a link between cultures and religions, they bear witness to the convergence
the understanding and not the fusion, of the inclusive cultural tradition of living together. .
PATRIARCHS, PROPHETS
& GREAT HISTORICAL FIGURES
They are the backbone of the traditions common to the three monotheisms and are mentioned in the Torah and the Old Testament. They also appear in the Koran or in the Muslim tradition. Many are inseparable from the beliefs linked to the Magi. These “shared” figures stand at the opposite end of the spectrum from identity conflicts, against the current of prejudice and geopolitical hostilities.
AXUM, HOLY CITY
FOR THREE RELIGIONS
The first Jews arrived in Aksum in Ethiopia with Menelik, the presumed son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon (10th century BC). Menelik became Emperor, converted his country to Judaism and founded the Solomonid dynasty in Aksum. Bazen (1st century), alias the magi Balthazar, is the 61ème king of this lineage. In the 7th century, it was in Aksum that the first persecuted Muslims took refuge under the auspices of the Christian king of the same dynasty. Muslims all over the world celebrate every year the “first Hijra”, this migration to Aksum, which they consider as a “second Mecca”.
CONSTANTINOPLE
LOST PARADISE
OF RELIGIOUS RESPECT
Constantinople, founded by the Emperor Constantine (4th century), who put an end to the persecution of Christians and allowed freedom of worship, is situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the meeting point of the West and the East. After the Muslim conquest, the Jews, who had been present in Anatolia since the 4the century BC, lived there peacefully.
Sultan Bayezid II (15th century) saved 150,000 Jews from the Spanish Inquisition. The 20th century marked the end of peaceful cohabitation between the communities in Turkey (genocide of Armenian Christians, deportation to camps of Jews and Christians who could not pay the heavy tax imposed on them). The Islamisation of Hagia Sophia in 2020 will sound the final death knell for dialogue between religions.
CONTEMPORARY
INSPIRATIONAL ROLE MODELS
Pope Francis, the leader
Muslim Omar Abboud,
Rabbi Abraham Skorka
in front of the Wailing Wall
in Jerusalem, May 2014.
