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The need for dialog between religions
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Muslims have a Prophetic Tradition almost unanimously recorded in the Hadith literature that Jesus will return when
the end of the world is near. We do not know whether he will actually reappear physically, but what we understand is
that near the end of time, values like love, peace, brotherhood, forgiveness, altruism, mercy, and spiritual purification
will have precedence, as they did during Jesus’ ministry.
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There are many common points for dialogue among Muslims, Christians, and Jews who take their religion seriously. As
pointed out by Michael Wyschogrod, an American professor of philosophy, there are just as many theoretical or creedal
reasons for Muslims and Jews drawing closer to one another as there are for Jews and Christians coming together.
Furthermore, practically and historically, the Muslim world has a good record of dealing with the Jews: there has been
almost no discrimination, and there has been no Holocaust, denial of basic human rights, or genocide. On the contrary,
Jews have always been welcomed in times of trouble, as when the Ottoman State embraced them after their expulsion from
Spain.
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We believe that interfaith dialogue is a must today, and that the first step in establishing it is forgetting the
past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points, which far outnumber polemical ones.
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