Towards Understanding and Trust

Late last week I was saddened to read the Facebook post of a friend I knew when I lived and worked with the Oblates in Birmingham, England from 2004 – 2007. Her post described a letter her friends and family, and many others in the Muslim community, had received in the mail in Birmingham, London, and other cities throughout the country. The letter announced that April 3 would be “Punish a Muslim Day,” and that points would be awarded for acts of violence: 25 points for pulling off a woman’s head scarf, 500 points for murdering a Muslim and 1,000 for bombing a mosque. My friend, a mother and a wife, a devout Muslim and formerly a community organiser, wrote this in response:

 Thankfully, when we [Muslims] engage with people, we are only met with love and compassion. I don’t know any Muslims who have bigoted non-Muslim friends. Similarly, I don’t know any ‘extreme’ Muslims who want to harm anybody. It is not my reality, thankfully.

Her reality is something else. My friend cares deeply about family and community, and actively works at making things better for everyone regardless of creed or colour, and in spite of the vulgar treatment, which Muslims too often suffer. Not surprisingly, her circles of friends and colleagues reflect this; your vibe attracts your tribe, goes the saying.

Much of the work of a community organiser is given over to meetings with a variety of community groups and individuals. In those meetings the best organisers always do less talking and more listening. They listen for what’s important to a community: their concerns, their hopes and fears. They look for convergence… those issues where people and communities might come together to support one another and work for change. At times community organising may involve confrontation to drive change, but more often it’s about creating spaces for conversations where people are able to speak, learn and listen, and find a way forward together.

In a September 2016 homily in Santa Marta in Rome, Pope Francis said that the world is experiencing a lack of encounter:

“We are accustomed to a culture of indifference and we must strive and ask for the grace to create a culture of encounter…  that restores to each person his or her own dignity as a child of God, the dignity of a living person. We are accustomed to this indifference, when we see the disasters of this world or small things: ‘What a shame, poor people, look how they are suffering,’ and then we carry on… if I don’t stop, if I don’t look, if I don’t touch, if I don’t speak, I cannot have an encounter and I cannot help to build a culture of encounter.”

The message from today’s reading, said Pope Francis, stems from that encounter between Jesus and his people and we all are in need of his Word and need that encounter with Him.

This call for encounter can be seen reflected in the document from the Pontifical Council For Interreligious Dialogue called, Dialogue and Proclamation. It names four forms of dialogue: the dialogue of life, the dialogue of action, the dialogue of discourse, and the dialogue of religious experience.

First, the dialogue of life happens, “where people strive to live in an open and neighbourly spirit, sharing their joys and sorrows, their human problems and preoccupations.”

The second, a dialogue of action happens “where [people] work together to face up to problems of society. Working together creates understanding and trust.”

The third is the dialogue of theological exchange where, according to the council, “specialists seek to deepen their understanding of their respective religious heritages, and to appreciate each other’s spiritual values.”

Finally, there is the dialogue of religious experience, where, “persons, rooted in their own religious traditions, share their spiritual riches, for instance with regard to prayer and contemplation, faith and ways of searching for God…”

Most of us participate in dialogue on the local level in the first two forms; the dialogue of life and of action. These are the fundamental building blocks for encounter and dialogue, and can work as a preventive strategy that builds the relationships that keeps diverse communities from being drawn into conflict by suspicions and misunderstandings.

The responses evoked by the ugly Punish a Muslim Day letter have not been fear or despair or division. Rather, my friend’s commitment, along with many others, to dialogue and the common good is strengthened, and with gratitude they recall the friendships born as a result of the collective efforts to better the wider communities which they call home.

By Ken Thorson, OMI