Speaker: Struggle to Bridge Divides
More than 100 people turned out for the first Bloomington Muslim Dialog Group (BMDG) Coffee Hour of the semester at the Indiana Memorial Union Thursday on the timely topic of "Waging the Real Jihad: Living Cross-Culturally in an age of Conflict".
The speaker was Scott C. Alexander of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where he is the Director of the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program. He taught in the IU religious studies department for nine years up until 2001.
He began by clarifying the term Jihad. While it has grown in modern thinking to signify "Holy War" the literal Arabic translation is "to struggle". Within Muslim history thinking of this term was more centered on what we call a "just war" - specifically identifying such criteria.
The main thrust of Alexander's presentation, though, built upon a very important narration of the prophet -known as a hadith- when the prophet returned from his last military expedition, which was to the city of Tabúk, 330 miles north of Medina on the road to Palestine. At this time, Muhammad declared that he had returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.
Alexander stated that Muslims understand this to mean that Muhammad was returning to deal with the constant inner human struggle - the surging emotions of the inner self or nafs.
Alexander then highlighted the Sufi traditions as being important examples of Muslim thinking on the progression of the nafs from a "lower to a higher self", that we move first to a critical self and ultimately a nafs that is immersed in the beauty of and love for the Creator - the embodiment of peace of mind and peace of heart.
While this process can be painful and challenging the joy it brings washes away all pain and sorrow - we are from God and unto Him do we return.
Alexander then suggested this inner transformational process could serve as a metaphor for the way we work culturally as well as being a common theological ground to build on - that in a larger social arena we also go through three stages:
- Multi-Cultural Phase: Here we bump into each other, we try to avoid each other, sometimes we try to eliminate each other.
- Inter-Cultural Phase: We be begin to share events, learn to appreciate each other's foods, holy days and traditions.
- Cross-Cultural Phase: That we plunge into the sea of life of the other culture, learning to wear their beliefs and practices, but then returning to our own culture with much richer inspiration and "enhancing transformations".
Alexander then answered the question: "Has this ever happened?" He cited the earliest examples of enriching cross-cultural connectedness for Jews, Christians and Muslims were in Andalusia, with the Moors in southern Spain in the 1300s.
Alexander said that in what is readily recognized as Europe's Dark Ages scholars, and even clergy who became Popes, traveled to learn philosophy, science and mathematics in the Muslim universities - learning that seeded Europe's Renaissance.
Alexander admitted, though, that this was a very tenuous connection among a very small number of people. Given the limited literacy, education, transportation and communication at the time it is not surprising that good will could not be sustained.
In the last hundred years Gandhi is a foremost example of one who crossed religious and cultural barriers to better understand the other people he was working with. Most recently, Pope John Paul II has reached out to Fethullah Gülen of Turkey, who created a dialog process which has inspired the Bloomington Muslim Dialog Group effort.
Kathy Kelly of "Voices in the Wilderness" had traveled to Iraq to understand and publicize the effects of sanctions and war on that country, suffering imprisonment in the process. Clearly, advances are being made, even Thursday night in Bloomington.
Alexander concluded with these poignant remarks:
"Cultural Extremism is trying to transform others into our own image, while refusing to be transformed by another culture."
"Cross Culturalism is allowing oneself to be transformed by the other, the greatest way to witness with our lives the universality and Oneness of the Creator."
Four to five more Bloomington Muslim Dialog Group sessions are planned this semester. The next meeting will be posted at www.bmdg.org or you can sign up for their email announcements at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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