72 Jewish Rabbis and 72 Muslim Imams met on Sunday to kick off the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace. That this organization even exists is something that might come as a shock to many.
For too long, Jewish-Muslim relations has been overshadowed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Between the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is Judaism and Islam that is closest to one another, and also the most antagonistic.
The choice of Seville for the occasion is poignant because Spain was once the center of an unprecedented degree of cooperation between Muslims and Jews. I recall a speech made by the roving Stephen Schwartz in which he had speculated that if Jews and Muslims ever came together with the same fervor, the rest of the world would be left far behind in high culture and scientific progress.
The list of participants reveals an eclectic mix of Muslim representations; from Muslim minorities living in ostenibly secular countries like Singapore to more traditional states with large Jewish populations like Morocco.
The list is also interesting for the Muslim countries not represented.
The particular constituency dominating the Muslim half of the Congress is therefore traditionalist, and this is evidenced by the remarkable rendition of a song praising the Prophet Muhammad, performed after the opening ceremony.
Intense love for the Prophet has always been a feature of classical Islam. In one of his many lectures (I can’t recall which), the prolific Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (Director of the Zaytuna Institute) explained quite rightly that this is due, in large part, to the fact that most Muslims are not native Arabs, and consequently, have no easy access to the purported beauty of the Quran’s Arabic script.
Thus, the first bridge between these ordinary Muslims and Islam is often the Prophet Muhammad himself, or more specifically, the noble character that emanates from the Sunnah (the Prophetic model of behavior and custom). It was through this exceptional conduit that early missionaries won many of Islam’s first converts.
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This sounds like an absolutely fascinating project – I am surprised that I have heard nothing about it before!
I am interested in getting any papers/notes etc. that were given or discussed at the event. If anyone has any (or anything like it, as I am happy to learn more about Judaism) then feel free to let me know.
I really had no idea about this. Gees! Goes to show what one knows. It has always baffled me, the absence of dialog between the two religions when I have grown up as a Muslim eating Kosher, before Halal foods were widely available in Sweden at the time.
Judaism was always something, I was taught, close to Islam and Muslims, they were our cousins so to speak.
The way things are today is far from the picture I grew up with. At the end of the day, politics is a far stronger force, unfortunately, sometimes.