THE WORD OF GOD

is actively engaged in scholarly work, interacting with people and engaging with groups working for interfaith and peace efforts. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan invited Father Victor Edwin and me to his house in New Delhi. As his granddaughters Maria and Sufia (who are graduates in Islamic Studies) led us up the stairs to his living room, I already felt happy and blessed to be welcomed so openly at his home—I, a “stranger”, a “foreigner”, having grown up in a completely different context and following another religion, too. I asked the Maulana how he understands interfaith dialogue. There are three types of dialogue, he replied. The first is debate, that is, when someone wants to win by showing or proving his or her theology’s superiority. The Maulana says that this actually is no dialogue at all. It even kills the spirit of dialogue and makes people either scream in anger or be silent. The second is the search for unity. This means that you try to unite all religious doctrines by seeking to eliminate their differences. But by this people also deny their own identities and the distinguishing thoughts, understandings and behaviours that characterize their lives and communities. Nature, traditions and social structures are never uniform and cannot pretend to be, the Maulana says. The third form of dialogue is intellectual partnership. In this case, we learn from and about each other, and even about ourselves by being shown a mirror from another perspective. This, the Maulana says, is the only genuine way of dialogue. These days, the Maulana says, many Christians are skeptical of Islam and do not listen to its wisdom and see its beauty. Many Muslims, on the other hand, he says, have developed a certain arrogance and are not interested in others anymore. But the Maulana wants to remind us of something that Jesus says: to love our neighbours, and even to love our enemies! Solidarity and harmony in religiously-plural societies are possible if we not only love people of our own faith communities but also those who do not belong to our religion or subscribe to our way of thinking. According to the Maulana, Islam seeks to establish peace and bring people together. Yes, some Muslims got lost on the way and began to take to the course of violence. But people should follow the path of peace that Moses, Isaiah, Jesus and Muhammad and all the other prophets have shown: “Those are the ones whom God has guided, so from their guidance take an example”(QURAN 6:90). The key is never to be extreme in your religion, but to believe in the goodness and justice of God. Interfaith dialogue brings people together to talk about their lives