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Discussions

Discussion subject matter

The six subject matters of discussion were:

  1. Monotheism
  2. Prophethood
  3. Scriptures and their History
  4. Family and Marriage
  5. Spiritual Experience and Development
  6. Concept of Holy War

Discussion outcomes

The experience has generated profound understanding of the other in their frame of reference. Surprisingly, it has also led participants to better understand their own faith tradition.

Key outcomes were:

  1. Greater Understanding of One's Own Faith
    • Writing the topics of discussion, sharing insight between own group members, studying the topic knowing that one will give a fifteen-minute presentation and finally listening to the presentation in a meeting, all augment one's understanding of the faith tradition that one belongs to. This was further enhanced by the questions that were asked by the other group and the answers that were given by the members of the same group.
  2. The Level of Improvement in Understanding the other Faith Tradition is Different for Muslims and Christians
    • The net change in the level of understanding of the other's faith tradition by Muslims and Christians was not the same. In general, Christian participants experienced a higher leap in their understanding of Islam than the learning by Muslims of Christianity. This is mainly due to the fact that, prior to the start of the project, Muslims had already had a base knowledge about Christianity for two reasons. Firstly, one of the essential tenets of Islam is that it recognises Christianity as a God revealed religion and Jesus as a person who represented God on Earth. However, the same can not be said about Christians, whose faith tradition does not talk about Islam and Muhammad and as a result they do not necessarily learn about Islam.
    • Added to this lack of knowledge, is the distorted imagery portrayed by media sources and actions of some Muslims, which places an average Christian in a dark view of Islam and Muslims. Therefore, the Muslim and Christian reaction to a dialogue experience is not the same.
  3. Realisation of Commonalities
    • The positive tone of the word 'dialogue' and an emphasis of the gatherings to highlight similarities enabled the participants to see many similarities not only in certain beliefs but also in practices as well. Exclamations of how many similarities there were between Islam and Christianity underscored the responses of many Christian participants. For Muslims, similarities were expected and were natural, as they believed that both Islam and Christianity are revealed by the same God.
  4. Better Understanding of Differences
    • The usual tendency in a dialogue initiative is to put the differences in the background for the concern that they will cause people to be defensive and unwilling to listen. However, such attitude also does not give opportunities to discover the reasons for the differences. Perhaps a true understanding takes place when the differences are explored. Also, talking about differences without getting offensive or defensive is a test of sincerity and respect for the other in dialogue.