Billboards have emerged across Australia carrying the slogan “Jesus: a prophet of Islam”. The Islamic group behind it, MyPeace, has done this in an attempt to encourage interfaith relations between Christians and Muslims. But not everyone is impressed with this gesture, and believes it to be more provocative and offensive than helpful.

Catholic bishop Julian Poreous, of the Archdiocese of Sydney, commented:

For Christians, Jesus was more than a prophet as the campaign suggests. He is the Son of God. He is acclaimed Lord and Savior of humanity.

To which MyPeace responded:

We mean no offense by the campaign and are simply trying to show to everyone that Islam follows the teachings of Jesus too. By encouraging this common ground to be found between the two faith groups, we hope closer interfaith communications can come about.

Bishop Poreous, however, commented:

In Australia with its Christian heritage a billboard carrying the statement `Jesus: A prophet of Islam’ is provocative and offensive to Christians. The campaign has the potential to damage relations between the Christian Church and the Muslim community. It is important that religions do not set out to antagonize those with differing beliefs. This would threaten the social harmony which we enjoy in Australia. Dialogue between the religions can only take place when it is founded in mutual respect. It is not fostered by provocative statements. For the sake of preserving social harmony and respect between major world religions these billboards should be withdrawn, along with others which carry messages directly offensive to Christians.

[Source: CP]