Interfaith Dialogue

Abstract

Interfaith Dialogue: A Guide for Muslims is certainly that – a practical guide to help local Muslim leaders navigate the tricky waters of interfaith dialogue. More than that, however, it is a document intended to persuade Muslims, who on the whole are reticent and even staunchly opposed in many cases, to engage in interfaith dialogue in the first place. This is evident in the preface of the second edition, which begins with a 2010 incident at the Islamic Center of Rochester, New York. A scholar visiting from the Middle East was speaking on the necessity for Muslims to talk to people of other faiths. When he had finished, one person in the audience strongly objected, even warning the speaker that he was in danger of hellfire for suggesting such things. Despite the watershed initiative by Saudi Arabia King Addullah in calling together the 2008 Madrid Interfaith Conference, “many Muslims who attend the mosque for daily worship are opposed or have negative opinions of interfaith dialogue” (xi). So what needs to happen first is an “intra-Muslim dialogue . . . that will educate worshippers on the meaning, scope, and the contemporary use of modern interfaith dialogue from Islamic perspectives” (xi‒xii). Apparently, authors Muhammad Shafiq and Mohammed Abu-Nimer encountered more resistance to the idea than they first thought would happen ...