Most recently, in March 2011, it has been wonderful to have been asked to facilitate a large Muslim/Christian dialogue in Washington DC, USA. This was a follow-up of a conference held in Dodoma, Tanzania in June 2010 in which Muslims and Christians from Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya came together to reflect on how best to build and guard peace in the midst of so much interfaith suspicion.
In Washington DC, this past month, Muslims and Christians from 19 American cities were joined by an international delegation of faith community leaders against the backdrop of the impending 10th anniversary of 9/11 – which will test the strength of interfaith relations in the USA. The conference was a remarkable reminder of the goodwill that does exist among people of different faiths and a testimony to the possibilities for peaceful coexistence that can happen when people sit down and talk trustingly with each other. Below, a delegate expresses his views of the conference:
Imagine a peaceful response to the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11
by The Rev. Gil Stafford/St. Augustine’s, Tempe
The Rev. Dorothy Saucedo, Imam Ahmad Shqeirat and I were invited to Virginia Theological Seminary to participate in a conversation about imagining a peaceful response to the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. Aided by a Luce grant, VTS brought together Christians (including bishops, priests, laity and seminary students) and Muslims (Imams and laity) from 19 cities and eight countries.
For three days, 11 hours a day, we struggled intensely with theological, philosophical and practical questions. We asked risky and courageous questions about our religious differences. We sought to understand our similarities. We opened ourselves to be vulnerable and to listen to one another. We heard our stories of pain. We listened to one another’s fears. And we imagined what God was saying to us, as a global community.
We heard stories like Ahmad’s. He is the Imam at the Islamic Cultural Center in Tempe. In the fall of 2006, he and three other Imams were waiting to board a plane in Minneapolis to travel to their home in Phoenix. Before boarding the plane, they said their prayers. As they boarded the plane one of the passengers passed a note to a flight attendant saying he heard these four men saying Allah before getting aboard. The passenger also thought it was suspicious that one man was wearing dark glasses while on the plane.
Subsequently, Ahmad and his three friends were handcuffed and escorted off the plane. The man wearing the dark glasses was elderly and blind; however, he was forced to leave the plane handcuffed and unaided. They were detained and questioned by the local police and the FBI. After five hours they were released and told they were not suspects any longer. They were told they could return to the terminal and arrange a flight to go home.
We heard other personal stories, Muslim and Christian, of prejudice, hatred and marginalization that have increased in our country. Our group came together to share in one other’s pain and as human beings, to acknowledge that we could listen and hear deep into our souls.
Our task was to work together with our local communities in planning healing events for the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. In Tempe, we plan to build on our second annual event of listening to the Abrahamic stories of our roots. We will honor our sacred texts, Torah, Bible and Quran. We will hear stories from our traditions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic. We will listen to one another and we will fellowship with one another.
In Tempe, we will continue supporting a new young adult interfaith group, iMagine, and we will be joining with them as they lead us to develop a service project for Sept. 11, as President Obama has encouraged us to do. And in Tempe, at St. Augustine’s, our congregation has invited Imam Ahmad to be our guest preacher at our 10:30 a.m. Sunday service on Sept. 11.
Our delegation of three also committed to inviting our fellow Christians and Muslims from our neighboring communities across Maricopa County to join us.
These events will allow us to imagine a new way of listening and working together. Yes, we do have theological differences, but we do share many similarities. Most importantly, we are human beings, God’s creation called to serve God’s creatures and be good stewards of God’s creation. We can only do this in our global economy if we begin to see with the eyes of God’s new imagination for us in the world in which we live. Only if we see with the heart of God’s economy can we reach out with our hearts to embrace one another as sisters and brothers.
I left VTS with a renewed spirit, an encouraged heart and a resolve to my commitment to listen to the intention of God. I left VTS knowing that listening is risky and may require courageous action. I left VTS with a deeper appreciation of our tradition that calls us into a new imagination of living in a global village. And I returned home with a new anticipation of the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, one that is hopeful and not fearful
