More than 30 Muslim interfaith leaders plan for 2009
Last Modified:
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:59:15 GMT
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Occasional meetings between Muslims and Christians or Muslims and Jews are no longer sufficient for building bridges in American society. Christians and Jews, not to mention the non-Abrahamic faiths, know a lot about Islam already. In the field of interfaith dialogue, American-Muslims need to do more and do it better.
This was a common theme throughout the Council's Spring 2009 Interfaith Summit.
“The Interfaith Summit on March 21 at The Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Illinois, brought together over 30 Muslim interfaith leaders representing many Council member institutions to learn interfaith dialogue best practices from both an academic and experiential perspectives" noted Junaid M. Afeef, the Council's executive director. "It was a unique opportunity to engage in some organized and facilitated strategic
thinking and planning."
The summit was organized as a roundtable so that each participant came to the meeting equally empowered to learn and teach. There were clearly some strong and divergent points of view on everything from the distinctions and similarities between dawah and interfaith to the baseline qualifications for Muslim interfaith workers to the role of Imams in Interfaith dialogue.
Presenting in the morning session were Professor Marcia Hermansen, Azam Nizamuddin and Dr. Shakir Moiduddin. The panelists covered interfaith work from academic, theological and experiential perspectives.
“There is a need to engage the broader Muslim community in interfaith," said Dr. Moiduddin, chair of the Council's Interfaith Committee while reflecting on his 20 years of interfaith work.
The afternoon session focused on strategic thinking and planning of interfaith work within the Muslim community. Faiz Ahmed, a member of the Council's Interfaith Committee led this session.
The participants identified 29 of the most important goals Muslims should focus on to further effective interfaith dialogue in the community. Most participants found it challenging to limit themselves to articulating just one goal.
The next interfaith summit will be convened in the Fall of 2009 but there will be regular meetings of ad hoc sub-committees during this time.
The Council is looking for the interfaith leaders of every member organization to join the Council's Interfaith Committee to strengthen Muslim interfaith dialogue across the region.
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