Reflection 

The Contribution of Interfaith Dialogue 

toward a Culture of Peace 
Jorgen S. Nielsen 

Dialogue among the adherents of the major world religions has always 

taken place, especially, but not only, among the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, 
Christianity and Islam. Excellent examples of this may be found in the 

midst of shared histories where we are more often presented with a record 

of conflicts. The high points must be the enormously rich and creative inter­
actions which took place in medieval Islamic Spain and southern Italy and 

at various times in places as far apart as Central Asia, Baghdad, Delhi, 

Cairo and the Ottoman Empire. 

As a movement with its institutions and full-time professionals, and 
networks of activists, interreligious dialogue is primarily a phenomenon 

of the twentieth century. It is the pressures of this century which have 

demanded that we mobilize the resources of the great religions for dia­

logue and peace, purposes which have historically often seemed marginal. 
In India, the realization that a reasonably unified independence would 

only be achieved if religions could work together, actually provides a 

significant impetus towards the cooperation of religious leaders and 

institutions. 
The horrors of Nazi genocide in Europe spurred post-war generations 

towards a radical review of traditional Christian attitudes towards Judaism. 

Out of regional tragedies, like the wars in Lebanon and in the former 
Yugoslavia, have come strengthened efforts across the social spectrum to 

disarm religious hatreds. The resurgence, in the last couple of decades, of 

political radicalism motivated by religion and expressed in religious terms, 

Jorgen S. Nielsen is a professor of Islamic studies and the directo r of the Centre for the Study 

of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the University of Birrniogham, UK. This paper 
was presented at the International Conference on the Dialogue of Civil izations, Institute of 

Islamic Studies, London, October 27, 2000.