By Daniel Imwalle
my five daily prayers.” Their friendship and conversations about their respective faiths ultimately resulted in both students identifying challenges and pain points within their belief systems, opening the door for spiritual growth. Without interfaith dialogue, both could have easily remained insulated in their unchallenged beliefs, stuck in an immature form of faith. As Abdulhai points out, the goal of these conversations is not to convert the other person. Rather, they are an exercise in bridgebuilding, a recognition of our shared humanity, and a realization that our collective moral compasses point true north to the God who created us all.
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Avoiding the differences and similarities between ourselves leads, at best, to a brittle and artificial unity and, at worst, to blatant intolerance in our communities.
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hen St. Francis met Sultan Malik alKamil, a Muslim ruler, in Egypt over 800 years ago, it was during the Fifth Crusade. Interfaith dialogue was still a remote concept, and yet the holy man of Assisi saw the potential for peace through conversation, not the typical course of action: one group dominating another and demanding surrender. Fastforward to today, and there is as much—if not more—of a need for members of different religious backgrounds to connect with each other. And though peace is a very worthy goal, MIT student Marwa Abdulhai points out that interfaith dialogue can help enrich one’s own particular beliefs. In a TED Talk released earlier this year, Abdulhai, who is studying robotics and artificial intelligence, speaks for a little over 10 minutes about her experience with her school’s interfaith dialogue program, Addir, which means “bridge” in ancient Sumerian. It might seem a bit surprising that a technical, science-heavy institution such as MIT would embrace and encourage a program like Addir, but the school leadership understands the need to prepare its students to thrive in a world where professionals of various religious backgrounds work closely together. In some scientific circles, speaking of religion is taboo, just as speaking about science is taboo in some religious communities. Abdulhai sees this as a major misstep. “I would like to make the case that avoiding the differences and similarities between ourselves leads, at best, to a brittle and artificial unity and, at worst, to blatant intolerance in our communities,” she says. In her time with Addir, Abdulhai has met and befriended other students from a wide range of religious (and nonreligious) backgrounds, including Christians, Jews, Hindus, and agnostics. Abdulhai became good friends with a Mormon student named Hope, whom she says “reminds me to pray
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Interfaith Dialogue and Religion in the Tech World
