Archive for November, 2008
Mike Ghouse, of the Foundation for Pluralism in Dallas, Texas has written an excellent piece on the importance of Jewish-Muslim dialogue, in which he describes a screening of the film “The Monster Among Us” at the Dallas Jewish Community Centre. One of the film’s central theses is that the new face of European antisemitism is Muslim.
Ghouse says some brilliant things in his article:
Watching this film (as well as other films in the past) and listening to the responses of the audience has confirmed my belief that one of the primary obstacles to peace is simply inadequate communications stemming from the unwillingness to see another point of view. There are certainly rotten apples in the barrel, but focusing on them to the exclusion of the positive only exacerbates the problem. Muslims and Jews need to dialogue without keeping a score or blaming the other.
The guardians of traditions have a role to preserve their way of life for their respective communities. Occasionally their role has led them to marginalize the “other”. We need a change, and this change will need to come from the hitherto silent moderate majority in both communities. This is a responsibility we need to step up to.
This very much mirrors my own “Don’t tolerate intolerance” line … but Ghouse’s key statement is this:
If you are a Muslim and don’t say anything against anti-Semitic rhetoric; if you are a Jew and smile when you hear anti-Arab or Anti-Muslim rhetoric; if you are a Baptist and rejoice anti-Mormon rhetoric; if you are a Catholic and remain silent when some one belittles the practices of Hindu, Wicca or Pagans; then do you have the right to complain if some one is anti-you? This is a serious question, the more you are silent about it, the more you are justifying anti-sentiments against your own creed. No, if it is not good for you, it is not good for others either.
The whole article is well worth a read, and the above statement is particularly worth reflecting on. If we remain silent in the face of bigotry against others, we lose our right to complain when others are bigoted against us.
Dave
November 26th, 2008
New Scientist just published a report on a study by Leiden University’s Bernhard Hommel, in which he shows that Dutch Calvinists are able to pick out shapes from a confusing background quicker than athiests of similar cultural backgrounds.
“This could reflect a greater focus on self than external distractions for Calvinists, says Hommel. He suggests it may even be a cognitive consequence of their religion and speculates that Calvinists might be more inward looking than atheists because they have lived their whole lives with an emphasis on minding their own business.
Hommel plans to give the same test to Catholics, as well as Muslims and Jews, but he must first figure out how to eliminate other cultural differences that could mask any insights. ‘It doesn’t make any sense to compare Iranian Muslims with Dutch atheists,’ he says.”
Does this mean that religious people see things more clearly? You be the judge.
Dave
November 23rd, 2008
JTA reports on a great initiative to “twin” Jewish and Muslim congregations across the USA. The programme was kicked off by a weekend themed “Confronting Islamophobia and Antisemitism Together”, an indicator that American Jews and Muslims are making earnest attempts to reach beyond the Middle East conflict to join hands in battling prejudices within and against their communities.
Far from there being “too many dialogues“, the more point-to-point connections we develop, the stronger we are as a community of communities. While we can rely on our umbrella organisations to support our endeavours, the real progress is made by people getting to know, and working with, other people.
What is your religious group doing to extend its hand in friendship to others?
Dave
November 19th, 2008
The past month I’ve been struggling to find something meaty and exciting and world-changing to discuss, but then I realised one cool evening at an Art exhibition that the battle for tolerance and understanding is won in the little things. The Irfanspace Art Show (which i hope Mark will report more about) attracted a wide range of people, and I was excited to rub shoulders with various Muslims, Jews and Christians who also appreciated the art. As one speaker said in opening the show, we may not understand each other theologically, but we can all appreciate the art together, which builds a deep bridge. Deeper than theology there’s relationships. And when the temptation arises to caricature the “other”, then relationships sustain the truth and keep us together.
Every little bit of action helps build the density of the interfaith relationship web. The next few months there’s various inter-faith conferences and events which i hope to go to. At first I was feeling a little tired at the thought, but now I have new energy. Who knows who I’ll meet there. Who knows what relationship webs will form under the hand of the Creator and Sustainer of all. I think I’ll just have to put more energy into meeting people even when I’m tired! Every little bit helps.
Fr. John D’Alton
November 2nd, 2008