After the initial hard-to-understand announcer and then slight awkwardness in the small groups, people of different faiths and ethnicities began to interact. The purpose of the USC is to serve students, unite people, and facilitate dialogue among different faiths. At the root of its aims, the dialogue was to remove prejudice by removing ignorance and discussing differences.
I thought one key point the group made was that dialogue does not mean debate or conversion--- it simply means discussion. And, I agree that misunderstandings about different cultures or religions lead to conflict. My small group even got heated at moments. One student kept badgering a Muslim man. He kept asking why Islam spawns so many terrorists and did not listen to what the Muslim man had to say. My group consisted of John and a couple other UT students but it was largely made up of many adults and a professor. My group mainly consisted of Muslims, Catholics, Hindus, and “soul searchers.” These individuals made some very interesting and true points:
We should focus on what we have in common in order to dispel conflict. At the same time, knowing the differences and educating yourself about other religions can help strengthen your own believes. One must know other religions in order to fully understand his or her own. But religion can be used as a political institution to control people or mask problems (like a mental problem). It is power and can be used for the wrong purposes. Indeed, institutions seem to preserve differences in order to keep power consolidated (for example, middle eastern controls) . Education helps make one less vulnerable to wrong interpretation. We thought that a fear of differences is encouraged by society and experiences.
We then discussed some aspects of Islam. I learned that the Jihad that everyone hears about on TV—the religious crusades terrorists are on—actually is supposed to be an inner-struggle against sin and badness. An internal, not external, war. Islam is also supposed to be a gentle relgion. For example, at the end of the world one cannot even kill an animal or a plant. We discussed how there could be a large number of Muslim extremists because of the environment of the Middle East which seems to perpetuate brainwashing through the media and culture. I also learned that a Muslim man can marry into any religion but a Muslim woman can only marry another Muslim. I thought this very-close-to-sexist practice mirrored the male-only priesthood of Catholicism. Perhaps, remains of past hierarchies.
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