Interview with Imam Warith Deen Mohammed
at the conclusion of the Focolare Movement’s
Muslim friends’ III Meeting

Mariapolis Centre, Castelgandolfo, 12.6.98

W.D. Mohammed: First of all, we think that the situation for dialogue is excellent for us here. It’s because of the principle of the Focolare Movement, the principle of love taken from the message of Jesus Christ - peace be upon him - to love as he presented it, how you should love each other as Christians, and love your fellow man. That is an idea that we embrace totally and I think anybody - whether they belong to one religion or the other it doesn’t matter - they can embrace that principle completely.
We have many Imams from the US here, leaders in the religion, and we have some others who are not Imams but they are leaders, they are business people, educators, teachers, and they are here and this gives us an opportunity to, I would say, feed our souls and our minds without fearing that some germs, bad bacteria, is going in or something ….! So they are relaxed too. I know we’re going back home with a stronger sense of our own spirituality because of our meeting each other. And I would imagine that some of the members of the Focolare are feeling the same, that seeing us express ourselves, seeing the common spiritualities that we have - we do have a common spirituality with you all - I think that some of your members too will go back home with more power inside them. I know I’m going back with more power inside.


Q.: At this meeting there are people from many different backgrounds, different countries and different currents within Islam. Has there been a dialogue among these different groups?

W.D. Mohammed: I think the conference has given us the chance to meet Muslims that we perhaps never would have met: Imams, business people …. And also the chance to meet non-Muslims, that gives an opportunity to have new friendships, and very important friendships. Of course, these are no ordinary people that we’re meeting here - they represent the higher class of people in the world. They are more refined mentally, and also spiritually. And this gives us an opportunity to have more power in the world. Because I think when good people get together, then good people have more power in the world and I see this as a growing thing that will never stop.
It started with Chiara Lubich when she took on responsibility for the first group. So it’s not going to stop. It’s going to grow. It’s hard to count people but I’ve told people about you, and I don’t know, I think some of them have become "Focolare people"!

So it’s something that’s not going to stop, it’s going to continue to grow. And it’s not only coming from the Focolare Movement either. There are other people with very similar kind of thinking, and hope for our future, and faith - that’s what it is: a big faith. We have a big faith in the future of people, if they’ll just embrace the right ideas, and follow God, believe in God, and love one another. That belief in that future is shared by so many people. Some time I frighten myself with my own beliefs. I look at my own beliefs and they kind of make me shiver a little bit sometime. And I say: "Well, am I dreaming, or am I standing off the earth, am I suspended in space or what?" But as I begin to reason with it, and reason with this world, I say: "Oh no, this is true, this is real reality".

Q.: I know that you had a personal conversation with Chiara when you arrived. Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with her?

W.D. Mohammed: The first time I got acquainted with her, even before I read the book on her, her history, her life, I was convinced that she was a person that God had given us. She’s a gift from God, to us, to help this world heal itself and come together so we can survive.
Because we can’t survive if we’re going to be separate from each other, and creating our own destruction for ourselves in our separate quarters of the world. That can’t happen anymore. You can’t have one part of the world be poisoned, be corrupt, be hurt seriously, and the rest of the world not affected by it. The world has become conscious now, all over, everywhere, because of the great advancement of the media etc. So I see her as a person that God has created Himself. She is not even a creation of the Catholic Church, in my opinion. She is a creation of God. God has made her what she is, and God has chosen her for the work that she is doing.
From the very beginning my meeting her and just greeting her and letting her know that I believe in her was an obligation on me. I had to make it clear to her that I know her and I believe in her.

We can be separated from now on, I never have to see her again. But she has touched my life and she has given me something for my own expressions now, that’s going to come out. I’m sure that she is praying for me, and we are all together, whether we are physically together in one place or not, wherever we are in the world, we are together.