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IL News 033/2020
November 24th, 2020
Interfaith dialogue between Abrahamic religions, in this case Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, could serve as a model to learn how to acknowledge and respect our commonalities and differences, despite a long history of tension and conflict. Thus argued by Matius Ho, Leimena Institute’s Executive Director in the “Abrahamic Common Traditions: US-Indonesia Interfaith Dialogue on Peace” online summit hosted by the USAID’s Asia Bureau, AJC Asia Pacific Institute, Leimena Institute, and USINDO, on November 24, 2020. Furthermore, Dr. Alwi Shihab, Leimena Institute’s Senior Fellow, emphasized the importance of more intensive interactions between leaders of the three religions to encourage more productive dialogues for peace. He proposed, for example, an exchange program of the Abrahamic religious leaders between the United States and Indonesia. Other panelists in this event, hosted in Washington, DC, were Samah Norquist (USAID’s Chief Advisor on International Religious Freedom), Husain Haqqani (Hudson Institute), Rabbi David Rosen (American Jewish Committee), Fr. Lawrence Frizzell (Seton Hall University), and Dr. Alfred Munzer, a Holocaust survivor who was saved from the NAZI by an Indonesian family in the Netherlands. Also in attendance to give their remarks and greetings were Leimena’s Chairman Drs. Jakob Tobing, US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, USINDO’s President David Merrill, Congressman Bred Sherman (D), and Congressman Ted Yoho (R).