"People suffer because of our silence. We must speak out." No, these are not the words of a high-ranking Catholic cleric - the one with the red patent leather shoes - in Rome. These words were spoken last week by Mohamed Gemea, a representative of the Grand Iman of Al-Azhar.
He and 39 representatives of the world's religions had met in the small Dutch town of Den Dolder near Utrecht to discuss an extremely critical topic: the churches' approach to HIV. They wanted to discuss measures to end stigmatisation and discrimination against HIV sufferers. This was an unusual concern that was addressed by personalities from the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious communities as well as the Bahai, Hindus and Sikhs. The churches, with their predominantly conservative views on sexuality and relationships, have so far been anything but helpful from the perspective of prevention experts. However, representatives from UNAIDS, the EU, the World AIDS Campaign and affected organisations were also at the table and were able to present a more secular view of things.
"The church has AIDS," said Reverend Mark S. Hanson pithily. However, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the USA was merely varying the slogan "Aids concerns us all". At the end of the conference, a well-sounding statement was adopted, from which one can at least read a "yes" to the condom, even if it was not mentioned by name. The paper states: "To change the current course of the HIV pandemic, holistic prevention is needed, including safe practices, available medicine and nutritional supplements."
In future, they want to participate more in the dialogue on AIDS and always allow people with HIV and AIDS to have their say. There is also a lot to be done to reduce discrimination within the churches. For example, they want to emphasise more strongly that Aids is simply a disease, not a sin. A start - almost 30 years after the outbreak of the disease - has been made. (cs)
Download the statement on the meeting as a PDF (English)
The press release of the meeting
