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Muslim Scholars Part Of Global Ministries' Conference
by Dina Rashed
CHICAGO, April 30 (IslamOnline) - For several years the Global Ministries held their annual convention to reflect on the dialogue between various orders within the Christian faith. This year, the conference adopted a wider perspective inviting scholars and activists of the Muslim and Jewish faith to reflect on the history and future of interreligious discourse.
Titled "Interreligious Pilgrimages: Where Are They Taking Us? Encounter, Dialogue, and Practice in North America," the three day conference which concluded on Saturday discussed women's issues, interreligious marriage, interreligious celebration, community organizing, prison ministry and health care facilities.
Chicago Muslims and interfaith activists were urged by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIO) to participate in the event.
"It is an opportunity to have an impact on the Christian thinking and action by offering Muslim perspectives on the issues they will be discussing," wrote Kareem Irfan, Chairman of the Council, in a letter sent to members of the Muslim community.
In a separate session held on the last day of the event, and devoted to the discussion of the experiences of the late Isma'il al-Faruqi and late Fazlur Rahman, two prominent Muslim scholars who influenced the Islamic discourse in the West in the last four decades, Ghulam-Haidar Aasi, chair of Islamic Studies and History of Religions in the Chicago-based American Islamic College, elaborated on the how the intellectual development of the two figures and their writings, during their scholarly journeys throughout the Muslim world and the West, made an impact on much of the debate, and influenced their students in understanding the self and the other.
Other Muslim scholars spoke in earlier workshop sessions.
Imam Darnell Karim, a resident Imam at the Harvey Islamic Center, reflected on the role of interreligious pastoral care in health facilities, while Imam Sultan Salahuddin, a member of the CIO with extensive experience in prison Da'wah, addressed the issue of prison ministry.
The event was organized by the Chicago Center For Global Ministries at the Lutheran School of Theology, a union of three major Christian theological institutions working in the field of pastoral education.
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