In an historic chapter in inter-religious relationship, the Italian capital of Rome is witnessing a unique three day religious summit between the Vatican and the representatives of the Muslim world. The summit is aimed at healing wounds in the inter-faith relationship between Christianity and Islam that have been caused by the Prophet Muhammad cartoon controversy in 2005.

Religious leaders from both the communities believe the potential in the two religions’ peaceful existence in the planet and the dialogue between the Vatican officials and the Islamic delegation is expected to focus on avoiding future misunderstanding between the two great religions.

The Vatican is being headed by Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran while the Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceric leads the Muslim delegation. The Roman religious summit is being seen by many in the political and religious world as a PR program on the part of the Vatican to heal some of the damage caused to the Christian-Islam relationship by some controversial comments made by Pope Benedict XVI’s during a speech in 2006 in which the Pontiff related Muslims with violence.

Yet both the Vatican and the Islamic world are confident of a landmark summit for the next three days which could rewrite Islamic-Christianity inter-faith relationship. According to Cardinal Tauran, head of the Vatican delegation, the meeting opens ‘a new chapter in the long history’ of the dialogue between the two faiths. The first two days of the high-profile religious summit would focus on God’s love and loving one’s neighbor with the Pope set to meet the members of both the delegations on Thursday.

The summit may be ceremonial in outlook yet this is a unique event which provides massive opportunities for both the religious leaderships to diffuse religious tensions in the near future and to take steps to eradicate religious fundamentalism and extremism. Only time would tell whether the Rome summit would go down in history as a benchmark for religious tolerance and amity for future generations to come.