The Need for Dialogue Between Religions

Father Samir Khalil and Professor Maher Jarrar

In a lecture sponsored in College Hall by the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature on December 10, Father Samir Khalil, who holds a doctorate in Islamic Studies from the Aix-en-Provence University in France, made an impassioned call for a more active promotion of dialogue between religions in order to bring about peace among countries.

Father Khalil began by saying there is no longer any need to ask whether a dialogue between religions is needed, but rather that the dialogue has become absolutely essential. And now, he insisted, is the time to ask how this dialogue can be initiated.

Religion, he said, has permeated the normal individual's everyday life, a fact that has given way to clashes between cultures and religions. Therefore, if people from different religions wish to coexist, they should choose a system of rule that respects all religions in order to unite them. He warned that adopting a system of rule that adopts only one religion would lead to extremism. The cause of the divide between religions, he said, has several reasons, among them the fall of the Ottoman empire and the formation of Israel.

Father Khalil observed that religion has become more of an ideology rather than a commitment of faith. There is a need for people of different religions to start viewing each other from the other's respective religion, saying that in order to understand each other, we have to understand where the other is coming from. This, unfortunately, has been very rare and difficult. In fact, he added, there is a lot of ignorance about different religions that only serves to increase the divide between them.

On an optimistic note, Father Khalil noted the instances in history when religions, particularly Islam and Christianity, were able to overcome their differences. The essential thing, he said, is for each religion to acknowledge and accept the other. In Lebanon, he stated that the clash between religions is rooted in sectarianism and the people's inability to accept modernity, saying that modernism is present in Lebanon, but people have failed to embrace it.

Father Khalil, who is a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Saint Joseph and the head of the International Association for Christian Arabic Studies, has several publications dealing with Islam and Christianity.