A More Specific Word Between Us and You

The vast and ancient division between Islam and Christianity cannot be ignored or overlooked as it has erupted into hate and violence across the world. A Common Word makes the argument that love and devotion of one god and love of one’s neighbor are the two central beliefs that both religions are founded upon and therefore their subsequent principles are more similar than different. As correct as many believe this to be, modern disagreements emanate from specific textual and cultural variations between the two religions; therefore, A Common Word is incomplete as it fails to address and reconcile any specific differences between the religions.

Some would argue that mentioning the conflicts in A Common Word would contradict the work’s entire objective by focusing more on the dissimilarities and conflicts than establishing similarities; however, religious persecution today, as a result of extremist acts that in turn fabricate vengeance, has become more prominent and personal and cannot be ignored. An obvious example of this is the September 11^th attack on the World Trade Center. The attackers belonged to the extremist Islamist group al-Qaida. According to most Muslims and also implied in A Common Word, members of al-Qaida are not true Muslims as a result of their violence on others because “in Islam without love of the neighbor there is no true faith in God” (44). Racial tragedies such as this provoke the blame and vengeance that soon after propel the personal discrimination and prejudice that generates conflicts and widespread religious divisions. This cycle of hatred can be stopped only with dialogue between Christianity and Islam that addresses opinions and beliefs on specific subjects and incidents. This, in turn, will more effectively eliminate the ignorance and establish more precise commonalities between the two, which A Common Word fails to do.

The Christian response to A Common Word very obviously supports the concept of further dialogue concerning the origins and reactions of specific differences and conflicts between Muslims and Christians. Immediately, the Christian response apologizes for any general discrimination and goes further to recognize specific conflicts such as the Crusades and the more recent “war on terror” (52). By simply mentioning these distinct events, the Christian response invites Muslims to engage in meaningful discourse about such sensitive incidents. Furthermore, the primary focus of the response is to reaffirm that both religions must “[Abandon] all ‘hatred and strife,’[and] engage in interfaith dialogue” in order to “pave the way for substantive interaction on difficult questions” that will eventually lead to mediation of each difference and resulting conflict (55,51). A Common Word may imply that further and more specific dialogue is essential to finding peace, but an implication is not enough to drive all Christians and Muslims towards making the valiant effort for tolerance and peace among religions.

Volf, Miroslav, Ghazi bin Muhammad, and Melissa Yarrington. A common word: Muslims and Christians on loving God and neighbor. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2010. Print.