In the world today, people collide and oftentimes use religion as a reason for their disagreements. Yet, experts say religions, however diverse, can combine to incorporate the many people within this world.
A group of about 50 students, staff and faculty gathered in a room in the Education Building on Colorado State University’s campus for “Dialogues around Differences,” a panel put on the first Monday of every month by the Department of Social Work.
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The March talk was centered around three religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and how interfaith between the religions can open up dialogue and create unity between each.
Judaism
Alex Amchislavskiy, who was born in the Soviet Union and later moved to Chicago, talked about Judaism. He works for Hillel on campus.
“The Soviet Union was not a good place to live as a Jew,” Amchislavskiy said.
Amchislavskiy spoke on Jewish identity and its complexities as it relates to other religions, specifically Christianity.
“It’s this venn diagram, if you will, of religion, culture and ethnicity,” Amchislavskiy said. “It’s a different idea of identity.”
He gave a synopsis of Judaism and connected it with the other two religions chronologically.
“In short, Judaism is the first Abrahamic religion, of which Christianity and Islam are a part,” Amchislavskiy said. “In Judaism, there isn’t just a covenant with god or a covenant with the people, but there is also a covenant with the land, which is the land of Israel.”
Christianity
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Rev. Hal Chorpenning, the senior minister Plymouth Congregational Church UCC, talked about his interpretation of Christianity. He started by summarizing the religion’s practically 2,000-year history.
“There’s a lot of strong ties to social justice within our religion that go back to the Hebrew prophets,” Chorpenning said. “We also see Jesus as being within the line of the Hebrew prophets. Jesus was not a Christian — Jesus was a Jew from the day he was born until the day he died.”
Chorpenning explained his view on LGBT rights, which does not seem to fit with the way Christianity has often been interpreted.
“One of the things that I get calls about really frequently from therapists here in town, is when one of their clients is trying to make their sexual orientation and their faith tradition jive, and a lot us may have grown up with a faith traditions that said homosexuality is a sin,” Chorpenning said. “Today, our congregation is open and affirming of LGBT folks.”
Islam
Representing Islam at the discussion was Tawfik Aboellail, the Egypt-born president of the Islamic Center of Fort Collins. He also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at CSU.
“The fore-coming of Muhammad was foretold in all religions, including the Torah and gospel,” Aboellail said.
Aboellail explained the traditions and rituals of Islam, including the Ramadan fasting, the trip to Mecca once in one’s lifetime and the daily prayers.
“We pray in a way that is very strange to a lot of people,” he said. “They say how can you put your forehead on the ground.”
Interfaith inclusion
All three religions are linked in some way, and for Islam, the monotheistic deities of the other two remain prophets within the Islamic scripture.
“Not a single Muslim is a Muslim until we believe the scripture,” Aboellail said. “We believe in all the prophets, but we believe that there are some changes that have been introduced, and that is the only difference.”
Amchislavskiy emphasized the importance of having other religions in the world and being unified with other people of diverse religions.
“It’s very important to Judaism that there are other monotheistic religions around,” Amchislavskiy said. “For Judaism, it is very important that the message of unity is getting out there, and I think the emphasis is really on the idea of free will, that all humans have free will and that the potential and what you have to do with it to affect good in the world. That’s something everyone can do, whether you are Jewish or not.”
Likewise, Chorpenning emphasized that in Christianity, living in the way of Jesus is to live a life of love for everyone.
“The way of Jesus is the way of love, the life of Jesus is the life of love, the truth of Jesus is the truth of love,” Chorpenning said. “So, if you see Jesus as being love and God as being love, then anybody who is lives a life of love is living through what we would consider as Christians a life authentic to Jesus.”
Chorpenning also recalled a time when Plymouth Congregational Church UCC connected with the Islamic Center to show their support for the Islamic community at a time when there was anti-Muslim dialogue.
“Standing in interfaith solidarity is very important to us,” Chorpenning said.
Collegian Reporter Megan Fischer can be reached at news@collegian.com or via Twitter @MegFischer04.
Michael • Mar 10, 2016 at 2:26 pm
To the Collegian,
I would like to point out that the statement attributed to Prof. Aboellail in your article above: “The fore-coming of Muhammad was foretold in all religions, including the Torah and gospel,” is extremely misleading and presumptuous. It certainly was not foretold in Eastern religions such as Buddhism Hinduism and Confucianism. Furthermore it was only foretold in the Torah and Gospels according to Moslem interpreters who find in those sacred texts obscure allusions to MHMD that neither Jews nor Christians acknowledge.
Specifically with regard to the Gospels, the Moslem claim that MHMD was foretold flies in the face of cherished Christian beliefs. Moslems say that the Greek word for Comforter, Parakletos – παράκλητος, Whom Jesus said God would send to His followers after His death and resurrection, actually is misspelled and should read Paraklutos, meaning Praised One and supposedly alluding to the Arabic meaning of MHMD’s name. The Strong’s reference for this Greek word is here: http://biblehub.com/greek/3875.htm.
This website explains the Moslem claim:
http://www.jesus-islam.org/Pages/IsMuhammedmentionedintheInjil.aspx
contact@jesus-islam.org, jesus-islam@hotmail.fr
>>From the earliest centuries of Islam, Muslim scholars have endeavoured to prove that this Helper was Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. It is argued that the Greek word paracletos, which is translated ‘Helper,’ should be pareklutosor ‘praised one,’ meaning Ahmad or Muhammad. This is proof, they say, that the Biblical text has been changed! However, any knowledgeable scholar in the field will tell you that there is no evidence at all for this ‘corruption.’ All of the Greek manuscripts in existence, which predate Muhammad, say parakletos, not paraklutos. There are more than 70 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today, dating from before the time of Muhammad, and not one of them uses the word paraklutos! All use the word parakletos. In fact the word paraklutos does not appear anywhere in the Bible!<<
This claim also is linked to the Moslem claim that the text of the bible has been “corrupted” which they imagine grants them license to distort and change the text at will, as they do regarding Jesus’ death by crucifixion and miraculous resurrection, both of which Moslems deny with the spurious claim of a corrupted bible text.
Thank You for allowing me to point this out. I urge readers to consult the above link to read in full why MHMD cannot possibly be the Comforter Whom Jesus sent to us after His atoning death and glorious resurrection.
Sincerely,
Michael Korn
Fort Collins
970-689-8942 (cell)
mevashir@aol.com
Michael • Mar 10, 2016 at 3:36 pm
PLEASE SEE THIS TALK BY A MOSLEM MAN WHO CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY DUE TO THE QUR’AN’S TESTIMONY ABOUT JESUS AND MARY: https://www.facebook.com/michaelphilip.korn/posts/1690097801234317?pnref=story
Michael • Mar 10, 2016 at 3:37 pm
My blog of Messianic writings: http://www.4shared.com/folder/kJc3mROu/_online.html?detailView=1&sortAsc=true&sortsMode=NAME
Michael • Mar 10, 2016 at 3:38 pm
Fusion of the Divine Names in Hebrew and Arabic: http://www.4shared.com/photo/PViOvQ-kce/YAHUWALLAH.html
Christian Soldier • Mar 8, 2016 at 10:58 am
Finally, an honest group of Muslims. However, we will know you by your fruit. We’re watching!