Necessity of Interfaith Dialogue

I found this discussion topic to be extremely interesting and informative. The meeting opened up with an introduction from a member of the University Interfaith Council (UIC). He explained how diversity is a big concept at the University of Texas. There are so many students representing various different races, languages, and religions. He told us the purpose of student organizations, like UIC and IDSA (Islamic Dialogue Student Association), was to encourage interfaith dialogue. There are many benefits of interfaith dialogue, the main one being to remove prejudices. These student organizations provide a safe place for students to discuss and learn about their differences. This is important because we all know differences can result in major conflicts and war.

We then split up into small groups to discuss many aspects about interfaith dialogue. Our group leader, Colin, led us in discussion with questions. First, we discussed why interfaith dialogue is important. This concept of interfaith dialogue helps us to clear up common misconceptions of other religions and helps bring us all together. It allows us to open up about religion and get to know people for who they are, not just what they believe in. Another topic our group discussed was what we can to in practice to overcome our cultural and religious differences. The most important thing is to be open minded to others’ beliefs in order to achieve well rounded beliefs. Some common grounds we came up with in which we can bring together people of different faiths included eating together, participating in community service, and planning social activities such as bowling. These activities can be helpful in bringing us all together in a setting for everyday conversation to get past our religious boundaries.

Two student organizations on campus have the same goal of encouraging interfaith dialogue. The two organizations I learned about at the discussion are the UIC and the IDSA. Some of the programs the organizations have put on and are trying to put on include field trips such as tours of Buddhist and Hindu temples, active discussions, and student presentations. All these have a common thread of learning about other religions and bridging the gap. These groups provide a place for people to get together to talk about controversial issues and explore and clarify the various stands taken. The UIC meets two times a month, usually on Wednesdays, but takes field trips on weekends.

Our small group also discussed what religious differences we wanted to learn. For instance, we talked about how people really come to learn their religion. Some people believe in their religion because of their family background and tradition. We talked about the importance in learning other religions to know your religion better. If you don’t know what else is out there, you won’t know what you truly believe. Some members in our group wanted to learn how other religions celebrate important milestones like births, marriages, and death. Others were more passionate about learning of the history of different religions and the celebration of past events. We talked about what motivates us to learn about other religions. Reasons were brought up including religions are geared to knowing philosophical questions like who am I and why am I here. Some were motivated to learn what others’ emphasis is because certain things are more important to some people. Also, there are many branches even in the same religion, so it is interesting to learn about the other branches. Also, a key concept we discussed was what we can do to establish peace on our campus. I thought that was interesting because I think that is connected to our world because many conflicts are started because of differences like religion. We discussed the importance of making friends with people of other cultures and religions in order to learn about them and to be more open minded to others’ beliefs.

I thought this discussion was very interesting, and I think it is something we can all work on. Interfaith dialogue is something we can begin practicing every day just by being open minded to others and learning about other religions in order to prevent the many common misconceptions in our world today.