THE CONTRIBUTION OF INTERFAITH DIALOGUE TOWARDS A CULTURE OF PEACE

Jorgen S. Nielsen

Jorgen S. Nielsen is the director of the Center for the
Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. He holds a PhD in Arab
history at the American University of Beirut. He was Lecturer in Islam at
the Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Selly
Oak Colleges, and later became Professor of Islamic Studies, University of
Birmingham, in 1996. His publications include: Secular Justice in an Islamic
State: Mazalim under the Bahri Mamluks, Muslims in Western Europe, Religion
and Citizenship in Europe and the Arab World (as editor), Christian Arabic
Apologetics during the Abbasid Period (edited jointly with S. K. Samir), The
Christian-Muslim Frontier (as editor), Arabs and the West: Mutual Images (as
joint editor) and Towards a European
Islam.

In the wake of the violence and intolerance of the
twentieth-century, the world yearns to find a way for different creeds and
cultures to co-exist peacefully. Nowhere is this more felt than in the realm of
religion, which has served as the flashpoint for innumerable conflicts in the
past hundred years. The combatants of the Balkan fratricide, the Lebanese civil
war, and the half-century long conflict in Israel have all (at least in some
form) used to religion to justify their cause. After a century's worth of
particularly acute conflict, humanity is looking for a breath of fresh air, for
an attitude of dialogue and tolerance that will replace the culture of violence.
There is no question that many members of the world's varied religious
communities are yearning for a dialogue, yearning for a way to resolve their
differences without resorting to violence. With all these factors emerging in
the contemporary world, the demand for interreligious dialogue is felt by all.
It is a demand that increases with each passing moment. This paper, it is hoped,
will be a step on the path of building a system of interreligious dialogue, in
the hopes that this dialogue might create a climate of peace in the world.