Pope Benedict XVI and Islam

During his papal tenure, Pope Benedict XVI focused on building on the outreach of his predecessors towards Islam. One of the important milestones in the Pope's efforts included a religious and peaceful initiative called A Common Word. This was provoked by a 2006 lecture he delivered at a university in Regensburg, Germany, which prompted Muslim leaders to gather and make overtures to their Christian and Jewish counterparts. Later on, Pope Benedict pursued key initiatives that helped foster Christian and Muslim dialogue. These were founded on the Pope's belief that Christians and Muslims have shared religious experience and that Christianity and Islam are both theologically founded in "God's irruptive call ... heard in the midst of man's ordinary daily existence."