Academics: Interfaith Dialogue is the Only Solution to Islamophobia
In today's enduring atmosphere inter-religious contention, the Rumi Forum picked the American capital Washington D.C. as the venue for last week's conference "Inter-Religious and Intercultural Discourse: Christians and Muslims in Dialogue" at the Catholic University of America with the cooperation of the University's Semitics Department and Institute for Inter-Religious Study and Dialogue.
In his keynote speech, Dr. David Smock, vice president of USIP's Center for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, summarized the attributes that religious leaders and institutions can offer in promoting peace and reconciliation as follows:
Credibility as a trusted institution; a respected set of values; moral warrants for opposing injustice on the part of governments; unique leverage for promoting reconciliation among conflicting parties, including an ability to rehumanize situations that have become dehumanized over the course of protracted conflict; a capability to mobilize communities, nations and international support for a peace process; an ability to follow through locally in the wake of a political settlement; and a sense of calling that often inspires perseverance in the face of major.
Dr. Sidney Griffith of CUA, in his presentation titled "Abraham in the 'Abrahamic' Religions: Theologies in Counterpoint," said "Islam was born already in dialogue with Jews and Christians," and given their common origin in the prophet Abraham, Christians and Muslims should always approach each other as brothers "united by the same spirit of faith and sacrifice."
Answering a question on the impact of differences in importance given to the first-born of Abraham, Ishmael, and to his second son Isaac by Muslims and Jews, respectively, Father Griffith said this should also be treated as a point of inclusion not exclusion -- since both traditions claim heritance of the sons of the same father.
Dr. Zeki Saritoprak of John Carroll University talked about "Muslims and Christians: Interfaith Relations in Confronting Cultural Conflict." Saritoprak is the founder and former president of the Rumi Forum for Interfaith Dialogue in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Saritoprak mentioned that despite all the efforts for dialogue on the level of religious organizations or in academia, the media still cannot approach the terrorism issue without making references to Islam. This, he said, was resulting in intensifying the prejudices on the part of Muslim people. Prof. Saritoprak spoke about Koranic approaches to dialogue and stressed that when Jews, Christians and Muslims read each other's texts, they find enrichment. He said Muslims before anyone else should be confident that knowing and understand other people benefits all, because the Holy Koran says that people are created as different nations to know each other. Dr. Saritoprak cited examples from the writings of Turkish Muslim scholars Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and Fethullah Gülen about the importance of interfaith dialogue.
Dr. Norbert Hintersteiner of the Catholic University of America provided different approaches to comparative theology and issues relating to possibility or impossibility of translating traditions. Pointing out that comparative theology is located in cross-cultural translation processes and inter-traditional developments of faiths, in order to explain how and why Muslim and Christian thinkers interact as they do, he needed to account rationality of traditions and how they interact. Dr. Hintersteiner said that the rationalities of traditions were competing, but yet he found them compatible.
Dr. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana of the School of International Service, American University talked about the "Muslim Peace Building: Actors and Challenges."
Dr. Kadayifci spoke about the Salam Institute's -- a non-profit organization that works on issues of conflict resolution, nonviolence, development and interfaith dialogue -- extensive experience in identifying the religious leaders who are actively involved in peace-making activities in areas of conflict. She said the Salam Institute is currently working on compiling a comprehensive database of actors and organizations in the United States and around the world who are actively engaged in Islamic approaches and methods of peace building, development, nonviolence, intra-religious coexistence and conflict resolution and transformation. This database is intended to become a resource for scholarship and activists in the field, for networking and support, and for providing and making known alternative approaches and activities related to the many complex challenges confronting civil societies and communities around the world today.
Dr. Zahid Bukhari of Georgetown University said all the American Muslim leaders and organizations have condemned Sept. 11 attacks unequivocally and in a post Sept. 11 era, American Muslims were facing severe challenges and also tremendous opportunities. He said the profiling and discrimination against Muslims and the government crackdown on some of the Muslim relief organizations are responsible for the survival challenge; and the derogatory remarks made against Islam made by some religious leaders and continuous propaganda by some media outlets have also created an atmosphere of Islamophobia. He said this situation, in turn, has also expanded the demand for knowledge on Islam among the American masses, and Muslims have great opportunities to reach out to this public by their words and actions. He said he was observing that the Muslim community does not only respond favorably to the calls of dialogue from others, but it was starting to initiate its own calls for dialogue at the grass roots level.
At the conclusion of the conference, all the presenters came together for a brief panel discussion and responded to the questions of the audience.
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