The Secret Power of Interfaith Encounters

Posted: 10/17/2013 10:58 am
Daniel Tutt and Maha Elgenaidi, Founder, ING

As a Christian who works closely with the Muslim community, and as a Muslim who was brought back to my own faith by the beauty I found in Judaism and Christianity, we welcome the upcoming holiday season as a time for rekindling the spirit of interfaith understanding we so desperately need.

This week, Muslims around the world commemorate the importance of Abraham's sacrifice in the holiday of Eid al-Adha. Eid opens this year's holiday season and reminds us of the importance of family, giving gratitude and of spending time with loved ones.

But as we gather this holiday season, we are also faced with the reality of violence and disunity that is being done in the name of our faiths around the world. From the recent mall attack in Kenya, to the tragic attacks on Christians in Pakistan that claimed the lives of 81 souls, we are shown once again the urgency of interfaith dialogue and interfaith understanding -- not just as a spiritual benefit but as a matter of survival.

The cost in human life and the threat to our global civilization are too great to allow inter- and intra-religious conflict to fester unchecked. That, surely, is motivation enough for anyone to join in the enterprise of building interreligious understanding. But we have, in addition, a more personal motivation for what we do:

Both of us owe our faith to our experiences outside of our own religion, to the people and the traditions we became familiar with through interfaith work.

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