Preface

1. Interfaith Dialogue

It has become a truism to say that the Australian community has undergone great change in the last 25 years, nowhere more so than in the emerging communities of Muslim believers in our cities. What is not so true, however, is to say that there has always been understanding or acceptance of this reality.

Many Australians have gazed upon these communities with a type of incomprehension built upon ignorance. While generally tolerant, Australians can also react negatively when confronted with the 'stranger' in their midst whose world they do not understand. We can be a lazy people, comfortable only with things that make sense to us.

What has taken time for many to accept is that their new neighbours are, like themselves, Australians, or in the process of becoming Australians. We have been through this before, in the last 60 years, with Estonians, Lithuanians, Croats, Serbs, Spaniards, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Chinese, and many others. Each time it is slow to sink in: these people, too, are Australians, just like us.

It is difficult to analyse what makes an Australian. It can be many things. What I find very encouraging at this time is the sincere and continuing efforts of so many Australians, Christians, Muslims, and others to build bridges of acceptance and understanding. These are dangerous times—how dangerous we do not yet realise.

The hard work, dedication, and compassionate effort that the pages of this book represent hope in a troubled world. They are not here to debate the relative merits of one religion over against another, or of one God over against another. There is a lot in the difference between our religions that is imponderable. To me these pages represent what will preserve sanity in a world going mad—the sanity of our common humanity, which is our starting point for any form of genuine dialogue.

It is not enough for Christian and Muslim to politely ignore each other. It is not just for either to claim ascendancy over the other. Convinced as I might be of the truth of my own faith, the only way to authentically meet my brother and sister is via the path of love.

Interfaith dialogue is not usually a matter of pure religious debate. It is a matter of cultural exchange and glimpsing one another's worldview. While we are Australians together, our histories are divergent. There is no one Australian culture, or one Australian race. Indigenous peoples have known this for a long time. Later Australians are only just discovering it.

To hear your neighbour's history, their concerns and fears, their hopes and aspirations, this is the first, pivotal point of dialogue. Think of it as a conversation, a mutual exchange that starts to break down the barriers of the unknown. Dialogue is the most effective tool we have to ease the fears so prevalent in our contemporary world.

It is very encouraging that groups such as Affinity Intercultural Foundation and St Charles Catholic Church have taken the initiative and received a Living in Harmony Grant for a project such as this. It is significant that the Australian government, through DIMIA, shows its appreciation of the importance of local initiatives aimed at harmony and understanding. What is most important, however, is that together we build a better Australia, by speaking well of each other, by speaking frankly to each other, and by refusing to succumb to the fear that would drive us apart within our own communities throughout this country.

John Henderson
Adelaide
February, 2004