2004-12-14 Rudin-Ahmed Dialogue |
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UCSD
Television Airs Collegial Muslim-Jewish
Dialogue * * |
Akbar Ahmed, a professor
of Islamic studies at American
University in Washington D.C., has warned that there are two ways to drive
Muslims into the arms of Osama bin Laden: by denigrating God or His prophet,
Mohammed. Ahmed, a former Pakistani
High Commissioner to Great
Britain, met in a dialogue session at UC-Santa Barbara on Sunday, Oct. 24,
with Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior inter-religious adviser of the American Jewish
Committee. Their discussion, moderated by
the Rev. Anne Howard, associate rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, was aired
Tuesday evening, Dec. 14, over UCSD
television. Rudin, agreeing, said it
was important for both groups not to “trivialize one another” and that Jews
and Muslims should seek to “validate” those from the other group who are
trying to change the culture of mutual suspicion and hatred. With reading comes
understanding, and from understanding, friendship can grow, said Ahmed.
“Once you are friends, you can talk about solutions.” Later in the dialogue
Rudin answered these questions: Mohammed was born in Mecca
in 570 and died there in 632. “Islam”
means “submission to God.” The
largest Islamic country is Indonesia.
The five pillars include the profession that "there is no God but
Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet;" praying five times daily, the giving
of charity, observing fast days of Ramadan, and, at least once in one’s life,
making a pilgrimage to Mecca in modern-day Saudi
Arabia. Rudin said key issues for
Muslim-Jewish dialogue are how each side views the legitimacy and territorial
integrity of Israel; looking beyond superficial similarities and differences of
the two religions, and overcoming a mutual lack of knowledge. The rabbi agreed that the
common descent from Abraham and the experiences during Spain’s Golden Age were
good starting points, but said in their mutual exploration of the subjects,
Muslims and Jews should dig deeply into the issues. Rudin noted that the Quran
describes both “Jews and Christians as people of the Book.”
What does this mean? he inquired. He
suggested that in dialogue, such observations should be dug into more deeply. Ahmed responded that there
have been times that Muslims have fought among themselves, just as there were
times that Muslims and Jews have had conflicts.
But these should not obscure the fact that there were periods of
cooperation as well. The former High
Commissioner told of being asked after taking his academic post in Washington to
give an introductory lecture to some fairly high-ranking government officials
from Muslim countries about the United States . When
he asked the visitors if they knew
who Benjamin Franklin was, one responded that Franklin was a Jew and had been a
president—neither of which was true.
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