The Annual Christian – Muslim Dialogue Conference
The
Conference on "Arab Christian and Muslim Heritage in
the Holy Land", 1983-Present
(Also
known as the Christian-Muslim Dialogue Conference)
The
Conference on "Arab Christian and Muslim Heritage in the Holy
Land" which held its first session in 1983 in Jerusalem was the
first fruit of the effort by a number of Christian and Muslim
founders.
The Heritage
Conference is a unique conference in the Orient and in the West.
The first session was not an isolated phenomenon or a one-time
meeting. For the march which began in 1983 was prepared for
seriously years before its meeting. The march continues, strong,
giving and serving our society until this moment. This march or
this intellectual movement is unique for the following reasons:
1.
The
strong belief of the founders in this work as being one of the
religious and national responsibilities
2.
The
belief of the founders of this project that our meeting is not a
dialogue like that between Christians and Muslims in general;
rather, it is a daily meeting and dialogue, a dialogue of life
and destiny.
3.
The
meeting and dialogue among Christian and Muslim Arabs is not
something new; rather, it is a continuation of the dialogues and
meetings carried out by our fathers since the beginning of the
call to Islam and until this day.
4.
We meet
as the children of one language and one heritage. This stresses
the continuity of work, dialogue and meeting. We live together
and we make the destiny together. For this reason our dialogue
is not a religious dialogue only; rather it has its social,
human, educational, political and economical dimensions. These
matters oblige all and make them responsible for this action and
its continuity.
5.
The
belief and conviction that the aim of AL-Liqa’ is not
proselytizing but educational, that is, it aims to know the
religion of the other as it is.
Thus the
march of the Heritage Conference began and developed over the
many years. This development was the answer to the challenges
and difficulties which confronted those who are responsible for
this program at Al-Liqa’ Center. Here I want to mention as an
example and not exclusively some of these challenges among which
are: the attempt by the Israeli occupation to paralyze this
work. This was done either by calling some of the organizers and
questioning them or calling the lecturers to the offices of the
military government at the hours set for their lectures in the
days of the conference or by imposing curfew on a certain area
or by putting checkpoints…etc. On the other hand some
Palestinian Muslim and Christian extremists and fanatics
attempted to persuade the lecturers or the participants or the
organizers of the conference not to attend or participate.
However, despite these failing attempts, the march of Al-Liqa’
continued to grow.
We have
concluded the proceedings of the twenty third session of this
conference which was held in September of 2011. Al-Liqa’ Center has
published the proceedings of the previous sessions in sixteen
volumes which contain all the lectures and symposia, some of
which are used at schools and universities, and all of them are
considered a rich reference for a number of students who are
writing their MA theses or Ph.D. dissertations about the Arab
Christian – Muslim dialogue in the Orient in general and in
Palestine in particular. Here, I want to point out that a number
of studies in a number of Western universities had been
conducted on Al-Liqa’ publications in recent years. It is
important to mention that the proceedings of the conferences in
recent years were published in special issues of Al-Liqa’ Arabic
Language quarterly review.
The above
mentioned conference did not satisfy itself by holding an annual
gathering. Rather over the years, it sought to hold tens of
monthly meetings in Palestinian towns and cities on the
importance of religious understanding, coexistence and the
respect for one another. In recent years, the conference
committee and the management of Al-Liqa’ Center deemed it
necessary to invite Muslim and Christian spiritual leaders with
a number of interested persons to special meetings either during
the blessed month of Ramadan or on Christmas. Joint Ramadan
Iftar banquets organized by Al-Liqa’ Center established ties of
love and brotherly relations among the children of the one
people. Also the celebrations of Christmas in which Christians
and Muslims participated had positive effect on our society and
our children. Here we should not forget the positions of unity
which the Christians and Muslims expressed through AL-Liqa’
Center in national and religious occasions. Tens of statements
were issued by the Center in different occasions and press
conferences were held to indicate the common position by
Christians and Muslims on several national, religious and
humanistic issues. This is in addition to the media role played
by Al-Liqa’ Center through journalists who visited the Center or
the Western institutions supporting the work of the Center or
the friends of Center in Western countries. Here we want to
point out that the Center participated in several international
conferences which revolved around the dialogue among religions.
In addition, a delegation from Al-Liqa’ Center paid a private
visit to the Vatican where they met with His Holiness Pope John
Paul II and some officials of the Christian – Muslim dialogue.
This visit had a big media dimension whereby it indicated to the
West the meaning and the concept of the strength of the unity of
the Palestinian Arab people. The delegations always emphasized
the importance of dialogue, knowledge by the one for the
religion of the other and the importance of the continuity of
meetings and dialogues as it is a civilized phenomenon which
brings the peoples and the children of the one people together.
The reasons
which encouraged a number of Christian and Muslim Palestinians
to establish Al-Liqa’ Center did not end. We see that the role
of Al-Liqa’ should be bigger and more comprehensive in this
critical and difficult stage through which our people is
passing. Crises are many, conflicts are increasing, and there is
a desire to nurture sectarianism and divisive categorization.
The years which have elapsed since our work started in 1982 are
considered a corner stone in a large building which is still
waiting men and women in this homeland to complete.
The
responsibilities are many and the challenges are big. We have to
continue to give and to be following up the matters from a
responsible national and religious starting point. We hope that
the unity of the children of this people will be reinforced and
that all the conspiracies contrived against them it will fail.
Our people young and old have the responsibility and before a
divine responsibility to strengthen our love and our respect for
each other, for our religion and for our homeland. At the time
when peace and justice are absent, challenges and
responsibilities are many and become large. Religion had a big
role to achieve the bases of a just peace. Our prophetic voice
should be clearer, demanding rights of our people and focusing
on the role of the spiritual and religious leadership. Here we
do not forget to mention the importance of mass media, the
formal education and the parallel education in educating our
children and upbringing them to love the homeland, and national
unity.
Thus, our
love, respect and our belonging to our identity, land and
homeland had motivated us to study our past heritage, literature
and history so that our vision of the future becomes clearer.
All of this aims to remove the pains and to realize the national
dreams of our people through serving the work of God and man.