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Christian-Muslim-Jewish Dialog
The Christian – Islamic –
Jewish Dialogue 1981- Present
Our experience in the Christian – Muslim – Arabic dialogue in
the Holy Land has taken place before the beginning of the
official negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis
in 1991. A delegation from Al-Liqa’ Center and a delegation of
Jewish clergymen engaged in a dialogue about the concept of the
Holy Land in the three divine religions. This first meeting was
held in 1989 in the city of Sigtuna in Sweden under the
sponsorship of the Swedish institution “Life and Peace”. After
this meeting several meetings were held under international
sponsorship in order to follow up on the dialogue activity, and
this took place in Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Greece,
etc… These meetings have encouraged the two parties to meet in
the Holy Land either in Jerusalem or at Al-Liqa’ Center or in
another place to follow up the dialogue with the aim of
presenting the religious point of view as its holders believe in
discussing objectively and scientifically with the aim of
reaching points of meeting and understanding. The importance of
this dialogue is to expose the mistakes of politicized religious
interpretations which serve political ends for one party at the
expense of the other party.
These meetings have emphasized importance of not politicizing
religion or exploiting it politically or interpreting it in a
mistaken and faulty manner. I believe that the many meetings
have created fruitful relations among believers of these
heavenly religions. These encounters stressed God’s stewardship
on earth instead of exploiting God’s words by one party at the
expense of the other party or exploiting it by the strong
against the weak and the rich against the poor. We believe that
one believer is not better than another believer except by the
extent of one’s respect for Almighty God and for His magnanimous
and fair teachings. |
