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November 18, 2003
Panel:
Internal rifts limit options for interfaith dialogue
By Dann Denny, Herald-Times Staff Writer
November 18, 2003
R. Kevin Jacques, professor of religious studies at Indiana University and an expert on Islam, said the prospect of meaningful dialogue between Muslims and Christians in the post-Sept. 11 era is "quite tenuous."
That provocative observation was one of many made by Jacques and two other panelists Monday night in a presentation at the Indiana Memorial Union called "Interfaith Dialogue: Reality or Myth?"
The event, attended by about 150 people crammed into the Frangipani Room, was sponsored by the Bloomington Muslim Dialog Group a collection of Muslim individuals dedicated to promoting respect and understanding among all faith traditions by organizing settings for the exchange of ideas and social interaction.
Jacques said one of the hindrances to dialogue between Christians and Muslims today is the widely divergent beliefs held by individuals within the two faith traditions.
"Not since the eighth century have Muslims been debating and fighting as much over what it means to be a Muslim as they are today," he said. "The prospects of meaningful dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims depends on the outcome of these debates."
Jacques said when the Bloomington Muslim dialogue group approached him about being a faculty adviser to the group, he asked its leaders what they hoped to accomplish through interfaith dialogue.
They told him their goal was for members of different faiths to better appreciate diverse opinions and eliminate the stereotypes often assigned to others.
He liked their answer.
"Too often interfaith dialogue is really about conversion," he said. "For some Muslims, dialogue is secretly about converting non-Muslims to Islam. That is not true dialogue."
Jacques said Muslims are more likely to engage in true dialogue in countries such as the United States, India and Indonesia.
"When Muslims are the minority population, they can clearly see the dangers of religious conflict," he said. "They often feel one way to protect their communities is to engage in interfaith dialogue."
Jacques feels the Bloomington Muslim Dialog Group falls into a category of Muslims who "feel God is in everyone and that dialoging together is a way to share God's essence in all of us."
Harold Vogelaar, professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, said he was one of many Christians who dialogued with Muslims in Lebanon after the civil war there in 1975.
"I talked to a Catholic priest later and he said, 'We were not talking to each other but at each other,'" he said. "I believe what was missing was truly listening to each other a key ingredient for genuine dialogue to take place."
Vogelaar spoke of a time when his first wife was in Egypt, meeting with a group of Christian women who were deciding where to build a well for drinking water.
"One woman did not want to put the well in a village that was mostly Christians because there also were some Muslims who lived there," he said. "She wanted to put it in a village of all Christians, saying, 'Isn't it better to help our own kind?'"
"Fortunately, the Christian women decided to put the well in the village made up of both Christians and Muslims," Vogelaar said. "That's a characteristic of genuine dialogue. It includes a desire to widen our hearts to make room for more than our own kind."
Donald Mitchell, professor of comparative philosophy at Purdue University, said genuine interfaith dialogue leads to mutual understanding, respect, enlightenment and collaboration not to mention friendship.
"It's one thing to read a book about another religion," he said. "It's quite another to experience another religion through the life of a friend. It breaks down barriers and dissolves doctrinal differences within the framework of friendship."
Mitchell said understanding other peoples' faith can enrich our own faith and help us understand the common humanity we share with them.
Reporter Dann Denny can be reached at 331-4350 or by e-mail at denny@heraldt.com.
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