The DICID Participates at 10th Annual Building Bridges Seminar

17 May The DICID Participates at 10th Annual Building Bridges Seminar

It is of the greatest importance in our world at the moment, that here in this historic heartland of Islam there is so serious and deep a commitment to interfaith understanding,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, speaking at Georgetown University yesterday.

Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) is hosting the tenth annual Building Bridges Seminar which was officially opened at a ceremony at the Education City. The seminar, convened by Williams in partnership with SFS-Qatar, brings together a range of internationally-recognized Muslim and Christian scholars to explore issues at the heart of the two traditions. The theme of this year’s seminar is prayer.

Georgetown University in Qatar is hosting the event in Doha for the second time. The Building Bridges Seminar was held previously in Qatar at the invitation of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in 2003.
In his opening remarks to the seminar, Williams said: “In a sense, it is true to say that Doha is the seed bed for the Building Bridges enterprise over the years. The success of that first conference here in April 2003 encouraged all those who took part in it to believe that it was possible, desirable and indeed necessary that the conversations we then began should be continued. In the years that passed since then, the Building Bridges seminars have built up a very distinctive style of working together, studying sacred texts together, and above all, learning to listen to one another speaking to god and watch one another speaking to god – a style which has been patient, affirming and celebrating.”

He also remarked on the significance of Muslims coming to the aid of Christians in many countries, including Pakistan and Egypt, as examples of the ties between people of different faiths.

Speaking before the opening of the seminar, Williams commented: “We’ve never sought as a group to make a big public splash, our purpose has been to build trust and friendship, and that I think is the point of these Building Bridges seminars.”

This year’s 35 participants include Professor Dheen Mohamed of Qatar University’s College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, his colleague Hamed al-Marwani, also on the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) board, and Mohamed Khalifa Hasan from the Qatar Foundation Faculty of Islamic Studies, the Qatar University College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, and the DICID Board.

As in previous seminars, participating scholars will be using a number of texts from the Christian and Islamic traditions as the basis for discussion in a programme that includes public lectures and private sessions. Topics for this year’s public lectures—scheduled for today at the Georgetown Auditorium in Education City, will include “Theology of Prayer,” “Prayer in Practice” and “Mutual Perceptions.” Each discussion will include one Muslim and one Christian scholar.

The first Building Bridges Seminar for Muslim and Christian scholars was hosted in January 2002 at Lambeth Palace in London, in light of a global need for sustained efforts in developing better Christian-Muslim relations. Since then, seminars have been held around the world in Washington DC, Sarajevo, Singapore and Istanbul.

The seminars, each lasting three days, have explored a number of the most significant themes in the interface between Islam and Christianity: scripture; prophecy; the common good; justice and rights; human nature; interpretation; science and religion; tradition and modernity.