A Unique Interfaith, Intercultural, Social and Scriptural Experience

By: Ali Tariq

November 16, 2016

Sixth Annual President’s Challenge: Reflections on Interfaith Service in Higher Education

Participating in the Sixth Annual Presidents Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge was a unique learning experience for me in interfaith, intercultural, and social aspects. It was an opportunity to meet, interact, and communicate with around 60 international scholars, religious leaders, and peace and human rights activists and leaders from more than 30 countries around the world and with hundreds of students from all over the United States.


It was an activity which had a huge potential for opportunities and connections for everyone because there were religious scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions, as well as people working on peace, gender issues, human rights, the refugee crisis, and many other burning and contemporary issues faced by humanity all over the world.

As a scholar of Islamic studies and actively engaged in inter/intrafaith activities, madrasa curriculum, and teaching methodology reforms, it was a unique learning experience to interact with scholars of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and to learn about common practices, challenges, and hopes. The formal and informal discussions with these scholars ranged ranging from theological to jurisprudential to law, society, philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and other topics.

The diversity of the geographical, religious, and cultural backgrounds of the people gave us all the opportunity to learn more about the cultures, societies, norms, challenges, and issues others face and to share the common modules and practices of resolving these issues. Even from an Islamic perspective, it was an interesting experience to observe the diversity of Islamic practices carried out by Muslims hailing from different geographical locations and living as a majority or minority in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and the United States. It was wonderful to see Muslims, cherishing the diversity of thoughts and cultures prevailing in different Muslim societies, infusing the Islamic traditions and harmonizing with the local cultures through interactions and informal discussions with participants from Morocco, Turkey, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Australia, France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Kosovo, Oman, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Scotland, Lebanon, Jordan, Malaysia, and Syria.

Participating in the interfaith prayer circle and meeting with the chaplains of Georgetown University and other universities in the United States was a very rare opportunity. Several informal discussions with the chaplains about common questions raised by students gave participants an idea about prevailing issues of the youth in respect to religion and religious life. It was interesting and inspiring to know that U.S. government has helped students access chaplains who are well-educated and have deep knowledge of their religion to guide and help students in their religious and spiritual affairs.

Leading a session of scriptural reasoning with Canon Sarah Snyder, Rabbi Daniel Roth, and the active participation and input from participants once again proved that religion still has a major role to play in the life of individuals and society. It also proved that there are many common elements in Abrahamic faiths which can be shared, cherished, and celebrated. The questions and queries raised by the participants about the Qur'anic verses selected for scriptural reasoning were very interesting and innovative, since they were raised from the people who were from different backgrounds and religions, which gave me new perspectives and points of views and angles to analyze and reflect upon my own holy scripture.

In short, this four-day event was not just an interfaith event; rather, the diversity of the topics and participants gave everyone the opportunity to interact, discuss, learn, share, and reflect on the social, religious, spiritual, and academic aspects. Every topic had a huge variety of sub-topics and themes because the religious leaders, religious scholars, peacemakers, human rights activists, and social workers discussed the issues in relation to the interpretation of religious text, jurisprudence, law, theology, philosophy, spirituality, and their social and cultural impacts.

Each individual and community who made the event possible deserves a special thanks and appreciation, since the impact of this event was global, transnational, and universal. Special thanks go to the International Shinto Foundation; Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; and Hartford Seminary, among other organizers with the hope and prayer that this event continues since there is a lot of work to be done yet.
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