IL News 028/2020
International Webinar hosted by the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and the Leimena Institute
(Wednesday, October 21st, 2020)
The Abrahamic religious family is the three religions – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – sharing Abrahamic origins. Since these three religions counted more than half world population, peaceful coexistence will be mostly determined by how these three religions can live together peacefully. As an effort to build a better family bridge, the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and the Leimena Institute hosted international webinar on Wednesday, October 21st, 2020 at 18.30-20.30 Jakarta time, titled “Understanding the Abrahamic Faith through Qibla Studies”.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Ari M. Gordon, Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations at the American Jewish Committee. There were two respondents: Dr. Phil. Sahiron Syamsuddin (Lecturer at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University Yogyakarta) and Archimandrite Daniel Byantoro, PhD. (President and Founder of Indonesian Orthodox Church). The webinar was attended by more than 400 participants from Indonesia and overseas. The opening remarks was given by Drs. Jakob Tobing, MPA (Chairman of the Leimena Institute), Dr. Alwi Shihab (Senior Fellow at the Leimena Institute), and Dr. Muhammad Zain (the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia).
In his discussion, Dr. Ari Gordon explained why religious community often worship toward certain direction and why it is important. To understand Qibla in Islam and its connection within the three Abrahamic religions, it is important for us to also understand about Judaism and Christianity in the past. By understanding the history background, these three Abrahamic religions could respect each other as foundation to build harmonious Abrahamic religions relationship.