Baptist-Muslim Dialogue Produces First Steps

[Haruo]

One of the people I sang with in Evergreen Sounds at the MLK Day service (I think he's the choir director at First Baptist or something) told us he will soon be going on a tour of Turkey (Istanbul-Ephesus-Izmir-Ankara I think) as a Baptist, at the expense of some Turkish Muslim organization and in the context of interfaith dialogue and exchange. Sounds like fun!

Haruo

[Ed Pettibone]

[Dave Roberts]

Since you are interested in Baptist/Muslim dialogue, I want to report on what we shared yesterday. We offered a one-day seminar "Christians Look at Islam" in our church yesterday. We had 42 people sign up for it, five of them Muslims. Much of the day was spent in the seminar topics, but the last hour was a Q&A time in which the muslims participated. ONe of them was the local imam from the mosque. What I hope the end result will be is a more permanent dialogue between Christians and Muslims in our our community. It is certainly needed. I will try to report more on the event yesterday when I have more time.

[Haruo]

That sounds wonderful Dave. Thanks for sharing.

Haruo

[Dave Roberts]

Just to give you an update I promised on our six-hour seminar, we dealt with some of these topics:
Why Is It Important to Understand Islam?
How Do Muslims View Adam, Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad?
Shiite, Sunni, Wahabbi?
Islam in Virginia?
Are Muslims Friends or Foes--Islam and Jihad
This was followed by an open discussion. Our prime facilitator for the day was Dr. Charles Beckett, Director of the Center for Christian Understanding of Islam in Richmond. We were also to have had Dr. George Braswell, but his wife ended up in the hospital in Raleigh. I commend to others doing something of this nature. All participants paid $10 to participate that included lunch. This is the second meeting like this we have done here, the other in 2004. I suspect we need to do something of a similar nature again in 4 to 5 years.