Interfaith Understanding and Inter-Community Harmony: Going Beyond ‘Interfaith Dialogue’
By Dost, New Age Islam
9 October
2020
The other
day, I was reading the draft of an interview of a friend of mine. He works in a
university, where he teaches things to do with religion—specifically, the
religion he was born into, as it were, and which he identifies with. But even
as he is strongly rooted in his inherited religious tradition, he believes in
the need to promote understanding and harmony between people who follow (or,
more precisely, who claim to follow) different religions. In this regard, over
the years he has written quite a bit on what is known as ‘interfaith dialogue’.
The
interview was fascinating, providing glimpses into aspects of my friend’s life
that I never knew about. His commitment, at the ideological level, to
‘interfaith dialogue’ was truly impressive, as his responses to questions put
to him revealed. And this, as you will hopefully agree, was a really good
thing!
But my
friend’s reply to one question irritated me and set me thinking. In response to
a query, “Besides writing, have you engaged in any other form of interfaith
harmony related work?”, he didn’t have much to say beyond recounting that he
had participated in seminars and workshops and had been a research fellow with
a dialogue-related project of a certain
university some years ago. Then, he added, possibly seeking to explain
his limited practical work for interfaith understanding, “In my career, I did
not get the opportunity [to be engaged] in this regard at the practical level.”
When I
reflected on this response, I just couldn’t agree with the logic of my friend’s
argument. At the same time though, I could understand why my friend might have
thought this way. He possibly assumed that ‘interfaith dialogue’ is basically
about ‘experts’ who believe in and practice (or, better put, who claim to
believe in and practice) different religions getting together in a formal
setting to speak about their respective religions. Speaking about each other’s
religion is central to ‘interfaith dialogue’ conceived in this manner. It is a
verbal exchange of views between two or more individuals or groups, which is
what the word ‘dialogue’ is commonly taken to mean in other contexts too.
Now, if
this is what my friend thinks ‘interfaith dialogue’ basically is and for which
he might believe his career did not provide him the opportunity to engage in, I
don’t know if I can really find fault with him for not doing much practical
work for ‘interfaith dialogue’ beyond simply talking and writing about it and
attending seminars and workshops on the subject, and so on. The reason why I
ought to excuse my friend is that this is precisely what many other people,
including several of those who claim to be ‘interfaith dialogue’ ‘experts’,
think, or want to think, ‘interfaith dialogue’ essentially is, or should be.
And, this is just what actually often happens in the name of ‘interfaith
dialogue’: People who claim to ‘represent’ their religion (mostly religious
professionals) join with others who make a similar claim with regard to their
religion for a formal get-together that
may last for a couple of hours. There is much talk, with ‘representatives’ of
each religion speaking many good things about their wn religion while
(sometimes) listening to the good things the other speakers have to say about
their faiths. They issue passionate calls for global peace and insist that
their religions are committed to that cause. Later, they share a hearty meal,
after which it is time to depart!
A lot of
what passes for ‘interfaith dialogue’ is, practically speaking, simply this—a
great deal of such theological talk!
This being
the case, I don’t know if I can criticise my friend for not having done much
practically for ‘interfaith dialogue’. Given that what passes for ‘interfaith
dialogue’ is often simply just verbal theological exchange of the sort
described above, he might have been led to think that it was his job that
prevented him from doing much ‘interfaith dialogue’ work if it had not provided
him the opportunity for ‘interfaith dialogue’ understood in this way.
Some
interfaith ‘experts’ might, for various reasons, want to limit efforts to
promote interfaith understanding and inter-community harmony largely to just
verbal dialogues about these issues, in the form of ‘interfaith dialogue’
events that are often high on preachy theological talk but low, if not
rock-bottom zero, on practical engagement, action plans and follow-up. The fact
of the matter is that such ‘interfaith dialogue’ by itself often has very
little, if any, impact, in terms of improving relations between individuals
from different faith backgrounds. One major reason for this is because, as is
rightly said, actions speak louder than words. This adage applies to the realm
of interfaith relations too. ‘Interfaith actions’ speak louder than ‘interfaith
words’, which is what many understand ‘interfaith dialogue’ to be all about.
‘Interfaith
words’—verbal theological exchange by religious ‘experts’ on religion and
interfaith relations—do have their value and importance, but by themselves
cannot suffice to promote interfaith understanding and inter-community harmony.
‘Interfaith dialogue’ as theological discussion has its own place, but it
certainly cannot take the place of something equally, if not more, important:
‘Interfaith actions’, acts of compassionate service for people of other faith
backgrounds and expressions of solidarity and oneness with them.
‘Interfaith
dialogue’ in the form of formal theological discussions is generally the domain
of ‘experts’—such as priests and clerics—who have spent years studying this or
that religion. In contrast, every person, even the most theologically
‘illiterate’, can engage in ‘interfaith actions’. While ‘interfaith dialogue’
often costs a lot in terms of money—sometimes, ‘interfaith dialogue’ events are
hosted at luxury venues, such as five star hotels and holiday resorts, with
‘international experts’ being flown in
and out and being paid a handsome consultancy fee—‘interfaith actions’
can cost nothing at all!
My friend’s
job may not have afforded him many chances for ‘interfaith dialogue’ as the
term is understood conventionally. But besides and beyond his job, his everyday
life did afford him immense opportunities to engage in ‘interfaith actions’. Be
it while travelling in a bus or shopping in a market, having a meal in a
restaurant or rubbing shoulders with colleagues at our workplace, almost every
day we (including my friend) who are fortunate to live in a part of the world
that is religiously very diverse are blessed with many opportunities to
interact with people from religious backgrounds other than our own almost every
single day! These are great occasions to engage in ‘interfaith actions’. In
order to build bridges with people from diverse religious backgrounds we don’t
need to talk theology with them. Instead, we can simply put our religious
teachings and values into actual practice by engaging in ‘little’ acts of
kindness while relating with them. Smiling at a passer-by or greeting a
shopkeeper from a religious community different from one’s own can be a great
‘interfaith action’, as can sharing some food that you have cooked with a
neighbour from a different faith or just being nice with a colleague in office
from another religious background.
If we
expand our understanding of interfaith engagement from ‘interfaith dialogue’ as
mere verbal theological discussions to ‘interfaith actions’ in the form of acts
of kindness in our daily life with people from diverse religious communities
and backgrounds, we can discover that almost every day we are provided with
abundant opportunities to engage with others in a manner that is often much
more effective in promoting interfaith understanding and inter-community
harmony than the pious preaching about the subject that often happens at
‘interfaith dialogue’ events. We can discover that ‘simple’ interpersonal acts
of interfaith kindness can help melt barriers and build bridges of
understanding and harmony in a manner that formal theological ‘interfaith
dialogue’ by ‘experts’ often simply cannot.
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