Pawan Ahmad, Isham and Din, Fadzilah and Rashid, Ungaran
(2019)
Beyond interfaith toleration to interfaith cooperation: scriptural reasoning as a basis
for common ground for good works.
In: International Conference On Religion, Governance And Sustainable Development (ICRGD2019, 2019, online.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
In many Muslim majority countries, the Muslims circumvent interfaith dialogue and simply
expect the rest to conform to Muslim’ requirements and demands quietly. On the contrary, in
Muslim minority countries, Muslims’ are scrambling to promote interfaith dialogue as means
to find common ground, sympathy and understanding from people of faith. We should not
and cannot any longer mistreat interfaith dialogue as a political means to an end and fail to
see the value of its raison d’etre. Men of faith especially Abrahamic faiths share far more in
common especially in their ethical vision of the world than what divides them. We must rise
to God’s challenge and invitation to not only envision but be part of creating a better world.
It is because of our personal relationship with our Creator, we welcome all peoples to
promote a community of tolerance, inclusion, non-judgement, respect and above all a just
society through socio-economic empowerment and opportunity. It is because of our faith we
are kind, compassionate, know that all our action will be held accountable that become driven
to make this world a better world. To transform our current pathetic reality where faith has
little impact in the world, we must join faith with action. Enough talk of how our religion
solves the problems of the world around us; up till now our faith creates more tensions,
religious wars, conflict-ridden sectarianism rather than promote unity in diversity. It is only when we unite on common ethical ground that we can make a difference. As Moses had
stood up against the Pharaoh, and Muhammad against the oppressive tribal system, let men of
faith rise again together against oppression utilizing the concepts of tikkun olam and jihad fi
sabillah. All men are children of God and so together and only together can we work to create
a world that works for everyone.
Keywords: interfaith dialogue, common ground, unity in diversity, action.
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