Christian-Muslim Dialogue

For the last 6 months or so I've been participating in a Christian-Muslim Dialgoue group. Once a month 4 Christians, 4 Muslims and a facilitator meet in a home to discuss issues of faith, commonality and difference. It's been a really eye-opening experience in that sense of moving beyond a text book understanding of Islam, to hearing flesh and blood Sydney-siders talk about their lived Islamic faith.

On Sunday night we tackled the topic of Holy War. Now with all the media attention on terrorism, war and the so called 'Jihad', it was going to be an interesting night. Right from the start however we began to unmask some of the fallacies spread by fanatics and the populist media. For a start Jihad actually means "to endevour" or "to strive". And those who participate in Jihad are the "mujahidin". It does not mean Holy War at all.

For the Muslim members of our group last night, jihad meant for them the struggle to get up in the morning for early prayers, or to strive for a more peaceful relationship with neighbours. For them it was very similar to the discipleship struggles that I experience in trying to be authentic in following Jesus.

Further, they quoted Muhammad and other Imams who understood Jihad as establishing justice and ensuring freedom of religion for all people irrespective of their religious backgrounds.

Now I'm not naive enough to pretend that every Muslim person interprets it the same way, just as Christians manage to interpret the gospel in such diverse ways (Peter Garrett and George Bush in the same faith eh?). But to unpack some of the Qur'an in this way simply reaffirmed that special connection between the Peoples of the Book - Jewish, Christian and Muslim - cousins in the faith.

Big wraps to the Uniting Church, Catholic Church and Affinity Intercultural Foundation for pushing this idea.