Tracing bridge building among Abrahamic Faiths

Once the American Muslim community rarely ventured out beyond the comfort of its narrow confines of mosques and Islamic Centers, yet interfaith communication has now become an essential part of all of its local and national organizations. This became abundantly clear following the terrorists' attacks of September 11, 2001, when they realized their larger responsibility of communicating and collaborating with the broader American community. 

First efforts in interfaith understanding in North America can be traced to a conference called "Parliament of the World's Religions" that was held in Chicago during 1893. It was on this occasion that Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb, the earliest "Anglo" convert in North America, spoke on Islam in the American context. Several others meetings followed this conference, such as the first World Congress of Faiths in 1933. However, the force behind these early meetings was aimed at bringing together disparate factions of Christianity; the introduction of other faiths was only a secondary objective.

In the Second Vatican Council held in 1962, the Catholic Church issued its "Decree of Ecumenism" to restore unity among Christians. This Vatican Council is often credited for ecumenical understanding of the Jews and Muslims. Muslims were hailed as those who "profess to hold the faith of Abraham and together with us adore the one, merciful God." But beyond this pronouncement, although the Jewish - Christian dialogue was pursued vigorously following World War II, Muslims were tangentially involved and nothing of substance was accomplished.

An exception is a convention arranged by the American Academy of Religion in New York during 1979, where Muslims took the initiative, with the assistance of the Muslim- Jewish - Christian Conference. Professor Ismail al Faruqi, a founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (Herndon, Virginia) who was at the time Chairman of the Islamic Studies Group of the Academy, edited its proceedings; calling it a first step towards dialog between the three faiths. 

Given this context, the terrorists' attacks of 9/11/2001, served as rude awakening for all three faiths, more so for the Muslims, and especially for American Muslims. A group of Islamic scholars, among them a worldwide respected Islamic scholar, Shiekh Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi addressed an Islamic- Christian summit in Rome held during the first week of October 2001. 

In his address, Professor Al-Qaradawi spoke of the urgency of situation as the "personal credibility as believers and religious leaders is also at a crossroads." That "the whole world is looking forward to what extent the force of our moral example is effective." That "either we carry out an active role that might reshape the current events towards the right course in a way that best suits our creeds or we sink into oblivion for good." He stressed the fact that Muslims welcomed "any approach that might bring Muslim scholars and Christian bishops to common grounds to cooperate in order to find suitable solutions to contingent or chronic problems that are directly related to Muslim-Christian world."

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are united in their acceptance of the Abrahamic faith, and consider it as the source of inspiration and guide for human life. The faith inherited from Abraham (peace and blessings of God on him) has monotheism as its pivotal center. The three faiths profess one God as the Creator of the universe and man, who is active in history but separated from it, and is the Judge of man's actions, and has spoken to man through the prophets.

And despite essential doctrinal differences between them, this commonality of faith and its correlates is of such importance, that Muslims, Jews and Christians could speak together in an atmosphere of understanding and friendship since they are all "believers in the same God." As such, they could join hands to guide and enlighten others on the essentiality of faith, and work unitedly to further the causes of humanity, as well as redress it from the pervasive ills of secular maladies. 

The Qur'an gives Jews and Christians the honorific title of "People of the Scripture", and Muslims are required to respect their faiths. The Qur'an admonishes: "And argue not with the People of the Scripture except in a way that is better." (Al-Ankaboot, 29:46). 

Muslims have a firm belief that the Gospels are a Scripture revealed by God. That Moses and Jesus are God's beloved messenger who endured untold sufferings to disseminate His message. That the mother of Jesus, Mary was chosen by God to be the most honorable among women. Indeed, two chapters of the Qur'an are named after the Virgin Mary and the Family of Imran, while none is named after Khadijah, the wife of Prophet Muhammad, or his daughter Fatimah, or his mother Aminah. Furthermore, verses in the Qur'an describe many of the miracles by Jesus that are not found in the Gospels.

In the conference at Rome, Professor Al-Qaradawi brought to the notice of those attending that he and other Islamic scholars worldwide had condemned the terrorists' attacks in no uncertain terms. This, because Islam holds human life in great esteem and an attack against innocent human beings is a grave sin, backed by the Qur'anic verse that reads: "Whosoever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if had saved the life of all mankind." (Al-Maidah, 5:32).

Further that Islam is against bloodshed in all its forms. Fighting in Islam is usually launched to repel aggression, per Qur'anic injunction: "Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loves not aggressors." (Al-Baqarah 2:190).

Professor Al-Qaradawi emphasized that it is the lack of mutual understanding, and the ignorance of basics of creeds and dictates of faiths that hinder constructive dialogue and tarnish the image of Abrahamic faiths. Thus fuel to the fire is added in a politically charged atmosphere by extraneous elements, which want to use religion for irreligious purposes. They would rather resurrect the Crusade era that left indelible impressions on the minds of Muslims as well as Christians. And that it is time to use wisdom to help extinguish the smoldering fires that might destroy the entire humankind. 

As many Muslims feared, the biased Western media, especially in the US controlled by special interest groups, and the Christian conservatives came out spewing vitriol directed towards the Islamic world and American Muslims. This suited the neoconservatives in the US administration with their hegemonic designs of controlling the world, colonialization of Muslim lands and establishing a domineering empire according to their desired world order.

Given this, various Islamic organizations in the USA such as Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Circle of North America, Council on American- Islamic Relations, American Muslim Council, and Muslim Public Affairs Council met with the Christian leaders and arranged interfaith meetings with their counterpart Christian organizations. The effect of these efforts is materialized when we see for example, the New York based National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA adopted a resolution on September 28, 2001 stating that Christian and Muslim religious workers will work together to help major media producers become more sensitive to Muslims and provide accurate information on Islam. Its general secretary, Dr. Bob Edgar said that his organization is concerned about the current wave of hate crimes and, therefore, was initiating monthly consultations among Christian and Muslim leaders. 

Following the attacks on Islam and American Muslims by evangelist preacher Franklin Graham and the degrading remarks on Prophet Mohammed by Jerry Vines, former head of Southern Baptist Church, televangelist Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell, the National Council immediately refuted and condemned these statements as they were "not only factually untrue and offensive, but also dangerous to the national security of every nation where Christians and Muslims are seeking a peaceful relation." 

We can see another example of bridge building in the annual meeting of the Mid-West Dialogue of Catholics and Muslims. In the meeting held on November 7-8, 2001 at the head offices of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) (an umbrella organization for all Islamic associations in North America) in Plainfield, Indiana, a statement issued offered consolation for suffering people, and cautioned: "We must not, out of anger and vengeance, indiscriminately retaliate in ways that bring on even more loss of innocent life", asserting that "America must be a safe place for all our citizens in all of their diversity." The statement concluded: "Let us rededicate ourselves to global peace, human dignity, and the eradication of injustice that breeds rage and vengeance." 

The National Council of Churches of Christ (NCCC) in their meeting held on February 25, 2002 with the Islamic Society of North America sought closer ties with Muslims. And that they will work together with other Muslim organizations on a project to formulate "Living Room Dialogues" to bring Islam's basic teachings into the living rooms of their associated members. The NCCC, USA also announced that it would offer in June 2002 an intensive course on Islam and Christian- Muslim relations through the reputed Hartford Seminary. 

An excellent illustration of this close collaboration was recently exhibited on August 14, 2003, when a very wide coalition of interfaith, civil rights and academic freedom groups participated in a packed conference at the National Press Building in Washington, DC, to oppose the appointment of Daniel Pipes at the Congressional recess by President Bush to the US Institute of Peace. Daniel Pipes is known for his extremely biased views of Islam and Muslims and, because of this, the responsible Senate Committee had blocked his appointment. Dr. Reverend Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance whose members come from over 65 different religious traditions, led the press conference. Other speakers included representatives from the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, Jews for Justice in Palestine and Israel, the Arab American Institute, Academics for Justice, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, American Muslims for Jerusalem, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. 

The above are a few notable examples of the work that is being done by various Islamic and other faith based organizations to build bridges of understanding. Certainly important is the work by the local organizations at the grassroots level with Jews and Christians of different denominations. They meet at the local schools, mosques, churches, synagogues and community centers. Most allocate these responsibilities to their Imams and others have appointed special personnel who in concert with others, attend to the interfaith and outreach work, meetings in regular sessions at least once a month.

Humankind is suffering greatly due to the loss of spirituality and faith-based standards and values. It is the duty and responsibility of Muslims, where this sense is the strongest, to bring into coordination Christians and Jews with them, and work jointly to restore these attributes in the American society. America is a very religious-conscious society, but unfortunately, it is misinformed and ignorant about Islam. It is work at the grassroots that will remedy this situation as well as open up the American Muslims to a better understanding of other faith groups. With their transcendental sources (Qur'an and Sunnah) intact and unpolluted, interacting with the best of human intellection through Ijtihad, and resolutely standing for the causes of peace, justice and equity for all humankind, it is only through such joint effort that they will be able to find their due place of honor and respect in the American milieu.

Siraj Islam Mufti, Ph.D. is a researcher and freelance journalist.