c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ We live in times dominated by ideas of the clash of civilizations and the conflict of religions. The images and stories on our television screens around the clock confirm these ideas.

The big question is: how can our world civilizations reach out to each other in harmony and compassion?

One answer was provided at the National Cathedral in Washington on Feb. 20 at Evensong, an Anglican evening service.

Here a remarkable and unprecedented event took place that brought together not only the three Abrahamic faiths _ Judaism, Christianity and Islam _ but also people of other persuasions. Episcopal Bishop John Chane led the entire service but dedicated it to a Muslim scholar. He also invited Senior Rabbi Bruce Lustig, head of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, the largest Jewish congregation in the region, to be part of the service.

Together a Jewish rabbi, a Christian bishop and an Islamic scholar read from their holy texts, delivered sermons from the pulpit and talked of their friendship and reaching out to each other in these difficult and troubled times.

Some 700 people gathered to share in this powerful and special moment in interfaith dialogue. Participants included students and ambassadors and former prime ministers. Guests came from outside Washington _ from Florida, California, and Boston. A Zoroastrian friend had flown from Pakistan to join the event. They were all aware that they were participating in an extraordinary experience. Emotions were high and there were many moist eyes.

The symbolism was powerful: This was, after all, the National Cathedral, one of the largest churches in the world, and situated in the heart of the capital city of the only superpower in the early part of the 21st century. This is where the president of the United States prays and state events are held.

In his sermon, the bishop explained that an Evensong service was not usually dedicated to an individual but in this case it was dedicated to a Muslim scholar.

As the Muslim scholar to whom this service was dedicated I found the emotions at times too powerful to contain. The grandeur of the cathedral, the color and sweep of the service, the beauty of the hymns sung by the choir and the power of the sermons lauding my work and reaffirming speakers’ own faith and its relationship with Islam touched me deeply.

This event could be a model for the direction and tone these three faiths could enjoy around the globe.

I pointed out that we need to dream of a moment like this in the Muslim world: the honoring of a Jewish or Christian scholar at one of the major mosques in Cairo, Lahore or Kuala Lumpur.

Non-Muslims visiting will see how serene and dignified a mosque is. They will see the essential egalitarianism of Islam when Muslims stand to pray shoulder to shoulder with those who stand by them. There are no hierarchies based on status or wealth. Muslims, in turn, must welcome these visitors. They will be there not to interrupt or disrespect or corrupt but to be introduced to Islam.

If we do not take this road of dialogue and understanding then I fear for the next generation. There are enough people preaching hatred, which encourages violence. We are living in times when technology, biology and chemistry have created the possibility of killing in large numbers. And, unfortunately, the cruelty and killing are often justified through a distorted interpretation of religion.

In the Muslim world, if the present images of America are provided by a smiling Lynndie England dragging a naked Muslim prisoner on a dog leash or pointing with a gleeful grin to the genitals of a hooded prisoner, then it needs to see another more humane image in the form of the wise and compassionate rabbi and bishop.

For me, the sweetest aspect of the sermons was the acknowledgement of my faith as part of the Abrahamic tradition. To hear the prophet of Islam greeted as a prophet in the Abrahamic tradition in this grand house of God was to witness history being made. Here was a shifting of the ground. As a Muslim, I felt there could be no better honor for me than this acknowledgement _ neither the Nobel Prize nor the Pulitzer Prize.

MO/JL RNS END

(Professor Akbar S. Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, is co-editor of “After Terror: Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations, Polity”)