{"id":306080,"date":"2018-04-19T01:10:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/muslims-and-christians-together\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:36:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:36:58","slug":"muslims-and-christians-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/muslims-and-christians-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslims and Christians together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> \u201cWe were born in two traditionally conservative families from Tlemcen<\/strong>, an ancient city, the cradle of Arab-Muslim culture,\u201d says Farouk. \u201cWe\u2019ve been married 42 years, have three children and two grandchildren. \u201cDuring the first year we were married, like many couples, we discovered that we had very different personalities, and this caused friction between us. \u201cMeeting the Focolare Movement helped us understand that we needed to start on the path to true love. This experience showered us with God\u2019s love and helped us take early steps toward each other. We really wanted to learn all about the spirituality of unity<\/a> deeply, to the point that our lives began to be between Orano, where we live, and Tlemcen, where the Focolare center is. \u201cWe started sharing our Muslim faith and understanding how to embody the spirituality of unity within our beliefs. A small community took shape around us at Orano, where our house became a gathering place, a \u201cbeacon,\u201d as Chiara Lubich<\/a> herself named it. \u201cMany Muslims met the Focolare, and we started to share more and more, nourished and enriched by a supernatural love. In the early 1990s, the guerilla war in our country reminded us of the similar circumstances when the movement was born, and that same discovery of God as the ideal of our lives.\u201d \"\"<\/a>Sch\u00e9h\u00e9razad continues: \u201cWe went through a pretty turbulent stage when our children were teens. We tried to debate and dialogue with them, but above all, love them. We can now say that with the two eldest we were able to create a relationship based on sincerity. \u201cIn the Focolare community I heard experiences about the love of God<\/a>. Little by little I learned to trust faithfully in God, in his mercy. \u201cTaking up this spiritual path freed me from my ego and fear in my relationships with people. The commitment to put God in the first place in our lives is certainly personal, but we chose to live it as a family. \u201cRealizing one\u2019s own limits and those of the other is a never-ending exercise. We need to constantly begin again, ask for forgiveness and start again.\u201d \u201cIn Islam,\u201d explains Farouk, \u201cprayer is a solemn moment. Our prayers didn\u2019t used to be that regular before, and each of us prayed alone. Now we try to pray together, out of love, not obligation. \u201cIn Algeria there are many sub-Saharan young people who come to study. Some come to the Focolare. We try to meet their needs, since they often don\u2019t feel integrated socially. \u201cOne of these young people, who is Christian, lived with us for a year and a half. We built a relationship so profound that he considered us his second parents. We often gave him our car so he could go to Mass.\u201d \u201cIn the Focolare community,\u201d says Sch\u00e9h\u00e9razad, \u201cthere is a sincere exchange, with out any misunderstandings about faith. Any introduction is done with respect for everyone, with love that has no agenda, with no intent to convert the other, but instead to help them be more authentically themselves. \u201cWhen we meet a Christian, for us it is natural to see him as a brother to love. We are not made to compete, but to work on a common project. Building unity cannot be taken for granted; it is a commitment that needs to be constantly renewed. \u201cTogether, Muslims and Christians, we can go toward the unifying One. In our life, thanks to Chiara Lubich, we have understood that this unifying One can be reached when at least two of us love each other, ready to give our lives for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The results of a strong experience of fraternity between Muslims and Christians, inspired by the charism of unity, were presented April 21 at Castelgandolfo in Rome. Here\u2019s the story of Sch\u00e9h\u00e9razad and Farouk, a couple from Tlemcen, Algeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}