Last Updated on Monday, 26 June 2006 15:47 by Elizabeth Brown Saturday, 18 June 2005 05:00
Etched into the stone over the doorway of a former Jewish synagogue was the following inscription: "Have we not all one God, and hath not one Father created us?" Superimposed over these words in neon was a sign declaring, "Christ is our only creed."
I encountered this sight some 30 years ago, while on a photographic exploration of a rapidly changing downtown Houston. I photographed it with mixed emotions: exhilaration over having taken a great photo and sadness at the sentiment it expressed.
Thirty years ago I would never have dreamt the state of the world in the 21st century - neither the violence and polarization on one hand, nor the diversity and instantaneous communications on the other. As result of all these forces, interfaith dialogue is both more needed than ever and more likely to occur.
One of the most positive forces for understanding today is a group called the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue, which sponsored a recent tour of Jewish, Christian and Muslim sacred sites in Turkey. The IID was founded by Fetullah Gulen, whose Turkish Islamic movement is one of the most influential examples of liberal Islamic thinking in the Middle East.
Gulen and his followers have tried to produce a religious-political movement favoring modernism, tolerance and democracy without sacrificing religious precepts. The structure and philosophy of this movement and its leader have been manifested in many groups and educational institutions.
Our area is blessed by a large number of Turkish students who follow Gulen and have been spreading religious tolerance throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi. They accomplish their goal not through words, but through deeds: attending other churches, hosting interfaith dinners and concerts and now hosting tours of Turkey.
About 30 of us, mostly clerics and academics who were fortunate enough to have forged relationships with Turkish Muslim students, went on a 10-day whirlwind tour. I will spare you a tedious travelogue and focus on the religious aspects of our tour.
The high point for many of us was our visit to the Interfaith Garden, recently constructed by the Turkish government near the village of Belek on the Mediterranean coast. Here, a small mosque, church and synagogue share a common courtyard and retreat center. In our group were five Protestant ministers (including yours truly), a Roman Catholic priest and a Jewish cantor.
We first checked out the mosque, where several of us knelt in prayer. Then we wandered over to the synagogue. Someone spontaneously asked the cantor, Neil, to offer a prayer in Hebrew, and he rose to the occasion magnificently. Next, we visited the church, where the priest, Father Dave, was asked to lead the "Our Father."
The Interfaith Garden served as an eloquent sermon on religious tolerance and the commonalty of the three Abrahamic faiths, which is the basic message of the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue. It should come as no surprise that this message is originating from a Muslim group, as Islam has a far better record of religious tolerance than Christianity has.
For almost 800 years prior to 1492, a remarkable multicultural phenomenon called the Convivencia took place in Spain. From the Latin convivere, literally "to live together," the Convivencia was a period of religious toleration and mutual forbearance among Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Throughout Europe, Christians and Muslims were fighting one another, and Jews were being confined to small quarters and denied almost all trades. Yet In Muslim-ruled Spain, members of these three cultures spoke each other's languages and shared their philosophies and theologies, their science and their cultures.
The same religious tolerance was practiced in the Ottoman Empire. Mehmet the Conqueror, the sultan who took Istanbul in 1453, ordered respect for non-Muslims.
I returned with even more admiration for the Turkish students who are promoting interfaith dialogue than I had before the trip. They never preach or judge - they simply live their faith calmly and quietly. (See my column of Jan. 17, 2004, at http://www.theeagle.com/faithvalues/011704lizbrowncolm.php.)
Perhaps the amazing serenity of our Turkish student guides is born of the Muslim practice of praying five times a day. They don't make a show of this practice, though, but rather find graceful ways of slipping away for a little while. They exemplify the injunction of Jesus: "When you pray, don't act like phonies, who love to stand up and pray in houses of worship and on street corners, so they can show off in public."
The overarching feeling that remains with me from my trip to Turkey is that of hope - hope for interfaith dialogue that is desperately needed if world peace is to be achieved. Hope that Turkey can be a bridge of understanding between the Middle East and the West. Hope that my photo of the former synagogue in Houston will become so outdated that no one will even get the sad little joke. May it be so.
Seek Rather to Understand than to Be Understood
January 17, 2004
"Seek rather to understand than to be understood." This spiritual dictum is from a prayer often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, the one that begins "Lord, make me an instrument [in other words, a channel] of your peace." This same piece of advice appears as habit five in businessman Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Wisdom, which appears in sources as diverse as a medieval monk and a 20th century secular guru, deserves a closer look.
We are blessed to have in this community a group that embodies this wisdom: the Inter-faith Dialogue Student Association (IDSA) at Texas A&M University. The IDSA was established by a group of primarily Muslim students in the summer of 2001 for the purpose of promoting and enhancing understanding and tolerance among people of diverse faith communities both on and off campus.
The IDSA emphasizes commonalties rather than differences. Members have organized a variety of activities, such as barbecue picnics for the Bryan and College Station police departments, educational forums and a performance by the Turkish Whirling Dervishes. They conduct an open discussion group on spirituality and religion at on Mondays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble.
Most recently, the IDSA sponsored an inter-faith Ramadan dinner, which was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The hospitality was gracious and the food was splendid.
But these achievements, impressive as they are, are surpassed by the group's ongoing commitment to visit other congregations. Every Sunday morning, they fan out across this community to appear quietly at worship services. They listen intently and smile warmly (behavior to gladden any preacher's heart). And they do this for the sole purpose of understanding, not to be understood.
I am grateful for and humbled by the presence of these students in my congregation. I am reminded that I do not always practice the religious tolerance I preach.
Religious tolerance comes easily to many Muslims, though unfortunately this truth is not well known. Too many of us ignorantly equate Islam with its radical fringe. For example, in Richard Perle's latest book, "An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror," this chairman of a Pentagon advisory panel claims erroneously that Islam contains the roots of violence.
This is a meaningless charge because it could be made of every religion if we judge it by its most extreme adherents. Mr. Perle may be brilliant in his field, but his knowledge of world religion leaves something to be desired. Islam, like all the world's religions, has many forms and faces. There are many Islams, just as there are many Christianities, many Judaisms, many Buddhisms, many Hinduisms.
It cannot be said emphatically enough that Islamic terrorism is not Islam. The Koran advocates a just-war policy, justifying war only for the purpose of self-defense. Islam, like all the world's religions, emphasizes the values of love, respect, tolerance, forgiveness, mercy, human rights, peace, community and freedom.
Of the three monotheistic religions, Islam has by far the best record of religious tolerance. Muhammad never asked Jews or Christians to accept Islam, and the Koran insists strongly that "there shall be no coercion in matters of faith."
Thanks largely to Islam's religious tolerance, Spain enjoyed from 711 to 1492 a remarkable multicultural phenomenon called the Convivencia (or coexistence, from the Latin convivere, literally "to live together"). This was a remarkable period of religious toleration and mutual forbearance among Christians, Jews and Muslims. And it was made possible by those in power: the Muslims.
I recently spoke with IDSA member Renat Chaikhoutdinov, a Muslim graduate student from Russia (actually from Tatarstan, a small republic within Russia whose capital city, Kazan, is a sister city to Bryan-College Station). I asked Chaikhoutdinov, one of the gentlest souls I've ever met, how he feels about the intolerance toward Muslims since Sept. 11, 2001. "Doesn't it drive you crazy sometimes?" I asked. (I know it would me.)
His answer floored me: "I blame no one but myself for others' intolerance." He meant that he takes full responsibility for educating the community about the true nature of Islam.
Imagine what this world would be like if more people adopted this young man's attitude. What if each of us took personal responsibility for increasing the store of tolerance, peace and love in the world?
Let us emulate these students. Let us heed the observation of Hans Küng, Roman Catholic theologian and president of the Foundation for Global Ethics: "No peace among the nations without peace among the religions, [and] no peace among religions without dialogue between the religions."
May there be peace among the religions and among the nations, and may it begin right here in Bryan-College Station. May we seek rather to understand than to be understood.
• The Rev. Elizabeth Brown is pastor at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in College Station.
The above articles were separately published on theeagle.com at the following addresses respectively:
http://www.theeagle.com/faithvalues/columnists/061805brown.php
http://www.theeagle.com/faithvalues/011704lizbrowncolm.php
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