Cardinal Tauran's Tepid Response to Muslim Letter

"It is a very interesting letter" said the cardinal.

Today's VIS bulletin:

CARDINAL TAURAN: LETTER FROM MUSLIMS IS ENCOURAGING SIGN

VATICAN CITY, OCT 12, 2007 (VIS) - Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue today published a brief comment on a recent letter by 138 Muslim scholars to the Pope and other Christian leaders.

"It is a very interesting letter," said the cardinal, indicating that it is "a new document because it comes from both Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims." It is also "a non-polemical document with numerous quotes from both the Old Testament and the New Testament," he added.

Cardinal Tauran then considered what religious leaders must do to prevent the fusion of violence and religion underlining the need "to invite the followers [of religions] to share the three convictions contained in the letter: that God is One; that God loves us and we must love Him; that God calls us to love our neighbor. I would say that this represents a very encouraging sign because it shows that good will and dialogue are capable of overcoming prejudices, This is a spiritual approach to inter-religious dialogue which I would call dialogue of spirituality. Muslims and Christians must respond to one question: in your life, is God truly One?"

Okay, maybe not tepid, but that's how I read it initially. I'd like to find a full text of it (hint).

Meanwhile: "Vatican thinks theological dialogue with Islam is impossible, experts charge."