Many Religions, One Community: Lessons from Islamic Spain for Today’s World

More than 70 people turned out to participate in the first event of a community dialogue initiative called “Many Religions, One Community: Lessons from Islamic Spain for Today’s World.” The initiative is a joint project of Public Agenda and 20,000 Dialogues to help citizens across the country engage in meaningful community dialogues about the past, present and future of interfaith relations.

The debut community dialogue event was sponsored by the Middle East Institute, a nonprofit educational organized founded in 1946 to promote knowledge of the Middle East in America and strengthen understanding of the United States by the people and governments of the region, and was hosted at the Rumi Forum, a center dedicated to fostering interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

After sharing a meal together, participants watched the documentary film, Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, produced by Unity Productions Foundation and initially broadcast on PBS, which tells a story of vital importance for our contemporary world about the achievements and ultimate failures of a centuries-long period when Muslims, Christians and Jews coexisted and built a society that lit the Dark Ages.

Following the film screening, participants broke into small discussion groups and, with assistance from trained facilitators, engaged in rousing conversations about the current state of and future possibilities for interfaith relations. Discussion participants used Public Agenda’s signature Choicework methodology for community dialogue to get the conversation rolling. Choicework offers three contrasting views of the lessons that can be drawn from this historical period and its implications for religious pluralism today.

Some thoughts from event participants:

"The concept and facilitation style was extremely innovative, not just your run-of-the-mill dialoguing."

– Event participant

"Discussing [interfaith relations] in a cordial manner always enhances tolerance in people. Afterwards the group felt successful."

– Small group facilitator

To learn more about the “Many Religions, One Community” initiative, or to sign up to host your own community dialogue, visit www.20000dialogues.org/mroc or contact McKenna Morrigan, Public Engagement Program Manager at Public Agenda, at (212) 686-6610 x52 or mmorrigan@publicagenda.org.