*3.2. The Abu Dhabi Delcaration of Human Fraternity*

Less than a month after the inauguration of the new cathedral, Al-Tayyeb met the Roman Pontiff and head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, in Abu Dhabi. The two religious authorities signed a declaration called the "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together" (Francis and al-Tayyib 2019). The document was framed as a global invitation of the two leaders to embrace the challenges of plurality in order to promote peace and fraternity among all people. The document presents an ambitious list of objectives, including hotly contested issues within the religious communities, such as religious freedom and equal rights for women. The global echo was significant. The long-standing papal efforts in this respect were honored (Barbato 2019; Gagliarducci 2019) but also sharply criticized, particularly by some inside the Catholic Church, as the document seemed to embrace religious pluralism, favored by some Church members but rejected by the magisterium of the Church. However, a closer look reveals that the alleged pluralist theology behind the document hints less to liberal Catholics than to Orthodox Quran teaching (Körner SJ 2019, pp. 615–17). In the driving seat of the document was not the papacy but the Muslim side, more specifically the Muslim Council of Elders, the Forum for Peace in Muslim Societies, and their Abu Dhabi host.

UAE strongman, crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the patron of the Muslim Council of Elders that consists of a board of senior scholars and former politicians. Al-Tayeb is the president of the council. An important member of the board and vice president is Abdallah Bin Bayyah, a former Mauritanian politician and Saudi Arabia-a ffiliated scholar, who is the founder and president of the Forum for Peace in Muslim Societies (Muslim Council of Elders 2020).

Abdallah Bin Bayyah's activities and a ffiliation shed a light on the controversies behind the declaration and what is at stake for the Middle East in a postsecular society that transcends secularist nationalism but is also post-Islamist (al-Azami 2019). Until 2014, he was vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and close ally of the then-president Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an eminent scholar and public intellectual a ffiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian is exiled in Doha, Qatar, where he has a prominent program on Al Jazeera.

During the Arab Spring and the following turmoil, Middle East scholars and rulers had to make some tough decisions. Due to the turmoil, the old alliances of scholars and rulers became unstable and fluid. Alliances had to be rea ffirmed or reshu ffled. The transnational public of the Middle East engaged in heavy controversies regarding how to adjust to the new situation. Muslim scholars, such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Abdallah Bin Bayyah, opted for di fferent political and public alliances. However, not only scholars, but also rulers had to make decisions. Qatar opted for Political Islam and the open support of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdallah Bin Bayyah broke with his Muslim Brotherhood partners and old friend Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who called for jihad in Egypt and Syria. Bayyah founded his own association, the Forum for Peace in Muslim Societies. It is based in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of the dynasty that opted for a sti ff fight against the Muslim Brotherhood and its vision of an Islamic democracy. Bayyah, who is also a co-moderator of the World Council of Religions for Peace, is well-connected to the global movements of interreligious relationships (World Council|Religions for Peace International 2020).

One of the first new initiatives of Bayyah was the Marrakesh Declaration in 2016 that called for the rights and protection of religious minorities under Muslim rule, particularly in reaction to the terror of the Islamic State (Marrakesh Declaration 2016). One of the most important points was that devout Muslim scholars, not secularists, spoke of citizenship that had to include non-Muslims (Körner SJ 2019, p. 613).

Interreligious dialogue and an interreligious inclusive citizenship became an option for moderate Muslim scholars who were not willing to opt for jihad and Political Islam. This kind of interreligious pluralism became the postsecular alternative to pan-Arabic secularism and Political Islam.

Coming back to the question of the Muslim–papal relationship and the Abu Dhabi declaration, the real news with respect to the papacy is that renowned Muslims scholars and elder statesmen backed by powerful rulers were interested in joining forces with the papacy in a public diplomacy event to promote peace in the Middle East and strengthen Muslim identity as a peaceful nation, internally as well as externally. Even the Qatari state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera was ready to pay tribute to the papal visit but also pointed at the human su ffering caused by the war in Yemen, which was supported by the UAE (Al-Jazeera 2019). The interreligious outreach also seems to be, from a Qatar perspective, not a legitimate target to be criticized, even though the public papal mass on the sacred soil of the Arab peninsula could have been used as a reason for an outcry (Wood 2019). Nothing in this respect happened, however.

To understand the rationale behind the Abu Dhabi declaration, it is worth quoting the presented self-understanding of the council from the council's website:

"The Muslim Council of Elders is an independent international organization that was established in Ramadan 21, 1435 Hijri (18 July 2014) to promote peace in the Muslim communities. The Council unites Muslim scholars, experts and dignitaries who are known for their wisdom, sense of justice, independence and moderateness. They will work together to promote peace, to discourage infighting and to address the sources of conflict, divisiveness and fragmentation in Muslim communities. Based in the United Arab Emirates' capital, Abu Dhabi, the Council is the first institutional body that aims to bring the Islamic nation together by extinguishing the fire that threatens Islam's humanitarian values and principles of tolerance, and putting an end to the sectarianism and violence that have plagued the Muslim world for decades." (Muslim Council of Elders 2020)

A council that focuses on inner Muslim unity and peace chooses an interreligious outreach in order to achieve its objective. The Document on Human Fraternity could, hence, be labeled as the manifest of a postsecular Middle East.

However, the objectives are in line with the UAE policy of founding a bulwark against Iranian hegemony and Political Islam. Scholars and rulers formed a broad coalition in order to frame and legitimize their policy and action on a new basis that embraces deep plurality. A pluralist and interreligious society backed by authoritarian rule in contrast to a Sunni majority democracy voting for Political Islam became a viable option for scholars and rulers alike. The entanglements of rulers and scholars are still too close to detect here the emergence of a critical public, such as the one Habermas attested to in the Papal Revolution of 1075. Nevertheless, inviting the pope, spanning an international and interreligious network, and integrating these efforts into a long-standing framework such as Religions for Peace are major steps towards an independent transnational public beyond authoritarian control.

Within half a year after the declaration, the papacy and the Council of Elders founded an interreligious organization, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, which also has a Jewish member. The committee's first major project is the erection of an interfaith complex in Abu Dhabi, called the Abrahamic Family House. The majestic compound will assemble a mosque, a church, and a synagogue and connect them below the surface with a conference center (The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity 2020). The postsecular impact coming from the Middle Eastern power politics of the becoming should not be underestimated.
