[Anglican Communion News Service] Anglicans need a deeper understanding of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations so they can better pray and respond to interfaith situations.

Chair of the Anglican Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON) and Archbishop of Dublin the Most Rev. Michael Jackson made the comments in a letter to primates and provincial secretaries of the Anglican Communion.

Writing to promote the latest NIFCON Christian Muslim Digest he said, “As the events in Syria and Iraq, and in other countries where Muslims are in a majority, impact upon increasingly wider areas, we are reminded that within all of the provinces of the Anglican Communion we need to have a deeper knowledge of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations so that we can reach a better understanding of the issues and how they might impact upon us and other Anglicans, and will be able to pray more effectively.”

Andrew Sharp has spent the past few months, on behalf of NIFCON, monitoring worldwide news coverage of Christian-Muslim affairs and has subsequently compiled the Christian Muslim Digest.

The present issue looks at the activities of Islamic State and the responses to these from other Muslims. It also features the story of Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for apostasy, acquitted, and granted asylum in the United States.

It can be read online or downloaded as a pdf, and is accessible at http://nifcon.anglicancommunion.org/digest/docs/digest22.cfm. To be put on the circulation for future editions email nifcon@anglicancommunion.org