The people of the Portland Rizwan Mosque graciously opened their doors this afternoon to Christians and Jews for a discussion on "Muhammad and non-Muslims," an interfaith dialogue concerning the Prophet Muhammad's own views regarding and interactions with people of different faiths. Imam Mubasher Ahmad (pictured), mosque president Rasheed Reno, and spokesperson Harris Zafar made a presentation that offered a picture of the Prophet Muhammad as being deeply concerned about interfaith relations.
I was immediately reminded of an essay from Amir Hussian who wrote in Progressive Muslims:
The Qur'an set forth perennial principles of humane interfaith behavior. For example, Qur'an 5:48 ends with the following words: "for every one of you did we appoint a law and a way, and if God had pleased God would have would have made you a single people, but that God might try you in what God gave you, therefore strive with one another to hasten to virtuous deeds; to God you will all return, so God will let you know that in which you differed."
The Portland Rizwan Mosque is part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a small movement within Islam (click here for additional background). For them respect for religious pluralism is a bedrock principle rooted in the Qur'an. They see diversity as a gift from the Almighty and the Prophet Muhammad's teachings, they noted, echoed this for the early Muslim community.
Those in the audience, Jews and Christians, were given the opportunity to dialogue with the presenters.
Questions ranged from whether or not the leaders of the Portland Rizwan Mosque believed that most other Muslims shared their respect for pluralism (they did and argued that those who rejected pluralism and embraced radicalism had in fact rejected Islam) and whether or not they believed Muslims, Jews and Christians worshiped the same god.
On that question came some struggle and tension. Muslims, of course, believe in monotheism. So do Jews and Christians. But Christians are also trinitarian. Imam Mubasher Ahmad pointed out the confusion in this - are Christians really monotheist or not? - and said this left open the question as to whether or not Muslims and Christians believed in the same god. The imam made clear that regardless of how this question was resolved that respect for pluralism must be maintained.
That wasn't the end of the conversation, however. In his remarks concerning Christian trinitarism the imam seemed to project an orthodox understanding of Christianity on to all Christians. A member of the United Church of Christ (and it wasn't me!) pointed out that just as there was great diversity within Islam there is great diversity within Christianity and many Christians reject orthodoxy. Harris Zafar noted that he agreed with this point and believed that generally Muslims, Christians and Jews do, in fact, worship the same god and certainly share the same Abrahamic roots.
I heard one Jewish woman leave the presentation saying to a friend: "We shouldn't be killing each other. We should be kissing cousins."
You can watch Zafar discuss the on-going debate over radical Islam from this September 2011 FOX News interview:
Yesterday I blogged about different Christian understandings of Islam and invited comments. This evening I invite your comments as well. Do the positive views concerning interfaith relations by the Prophet Muhammad correspond to your own experiences as a Muslim, Christian or Jew? What about other faith traditions?
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