He spoke last night; Catholic News Agency has a report:

Speaking in Italian through an interpreter, Magister said that while historically, Christianity and Islam have some common roots and a record of genuine intellectual exchanges, that these have by and large been deserted for centuries.

Answering a question from the audience, he said that one of the major reasons for the breakdown was that the major interpretation for Islam in recent decades has become the Sunni one–which insists that the Koran is final and closed for interpretation and debate.

Magister likewise cited a failure in the thought structure of Islam which, he thinks, prevents adaptation, growth and true creativity, adding that he has reached this conclusion through the influence of many Muslim authors themselves.

“The extreme difficulty of establishing dialogue is the intellectual deserting in Islam,” he said, “there are really no intellectuals in the Islamic world up to the challenge.”

On this, he pointed to the startlingly small number of books that are published Muslim countries.

This, he said, not only stems from the widespread opinion that everything has already been said in the Koran, but the stress, put by many political and social leaders on “the imaginary moment that the book was given to the world as well as the paradise promised” therein.

During his talk, Magister said that for many Muslims, the Koran is not the equivalent of the Christian Scriptures; it is the equivalent of Christ.

He added that this mindset, naturally and fundamentally closes them off from new or diverse ideas.

Magister balanced this fact however, saying that within the Islamic world, the Shiite branch actually makes up a noteworthy ten percent of the population.