Building Respect, Seeking Truth
How are you going to use what you learnt from the History of Muslim-Christian Dialogue course?
Some students respond
From this course I’ve learnt how I can express my true belief without conflict but in peaceful co-existence with Muslims. We’re closely living with many religious people in community where they want to know about religion because false religion grown up beside true religion. So, in this unrestful community I may share my true belief in a brotherly environment with them not polemically way but in peaceful dialogue.
Faculty member, ICL Bible College, Bangladesh
I intend to use what I have learnt to complement my teaching materials in the area of reading the Bible in an Islamic context. Such an understanding will help my students to be aware of the historical data or facts about Christian-Muslim dialogue… Since my passion is also in initiating and facilitating Christian-Muslim relations (dialogues) at the grassroots levels, I will use and share my learning experience and gained knowledge from the course to the Muslim communities I am now engaging…I hope that it may foster our mutual and peaceful relationships.
Faculty member, Southeast Asia Bible Seminary, Indonesia
I am a PhD student at the International Islamic University Malaysia which has a majority of Muslims, which means that discussions go in one way. Attending this course gave me the opportunity to discuss with Christians in the majority, majority and that gave the discussion new perspectives and directions… I believe that the crucial investment is the investment in education and that scientific dialogue is more important than show and media dialogue. Any dialogue about others must include others…[It] was a great opportunity to connect with other people from different cultures, backgrounds, languages and religions and CMCS facilitated this in a very friendly, open minded, diverse environment. Thank you!
Visiting Jordanian scholar at Baylor University, Texas
I plan to implement the ideas and methods I learned from this class in interfaith dialogue, pursuing productive dialogue with Muslims. I also plan to build upon the foundation of knowledge I gained from this course by further study of Christian-Muslim history in the future.
Recent master’s graduate, Houston Baptist University
I want to feature this teaching so that my Church members can be better informed and equipped to deal with Christian-Muslims issues which are all around them. Most of our engagement with Muslims is Public in institutions or markets because we are already segregated, so we mostly encounter them in the streets rather than in our neighborhood and this knowledge will go a very long in equipping Christians for this task. If there is opportunity, I will love to study more about the Crusades and the Reconquista, drawing valuable lessons to apply to our situation and how the Church is responding to violent confrontation from Islamist fundamentalism.
Master's student, Theological College of Northern Nigeria
Having served as Administrator / Research and Programmes Coordinator for the Interfaith Centre, I have been engaged in programmes and research on Muslim-Christian dialogue in Ghana for a number of years. Also, both my Master of Arts and Master of Theology dissertations focused on the field of Muslim-Christian dialogue. This course, however, is my first opportunity of having a comprehensive guide into the history of the field I am passionate about. My understanding has been enriched and my focus sharpened for both my studies, writing and practical work.
I am also part of a team working on developing courses in the field for the Akrofi-Christaller Institute(ACI), hence my experience with this course would be brought to bear in that direction.
PhD student, Akrofi Christaller Institute, Ghana
I teach Basic Philosophical Concepts, Introduction to Sociology and Anthropology, American Transcendentalists and South Asian Literature in English. Religion happens to be an important part in many of the concepts/theories/texts I teach. After the course I find myself more informed and well equipped.
This course has given me a glimpse of the rich history of Christian-Muslim relations. Through this course I have learned about historiography. I came across many invaluable resources.
Faculty member, International Islamic University, Chittagong, Bangadesh
I would like to thank all those people who have supported me for this course. The Pakistani context is unique and the Christians, being a minority, cannot avoid dialogue at every level in the society. Hence, it is very important to understand Islam and to know how to effectively communicate with the Muslims. This course contributed a lot to give me an idea of how I can build peaceful relations with Muslims in Pakistan.
English teacher, Pakistan
Where were the course participants?
