Presentation at the meeting 'On the Frontiers of Dialogue: Religions and Civilizations in the New Century', Barcelona, 2-4 September 2001 - 'Islam and Christianity, the Dialogue Continues', 3rd September 2001 (organised by the Community of Sant'Egidio.

I grew up with this proverb, but came to understand its real value only after starting my work in adult education on religious pluralism and intercultural living. It touches the essence of dialogue, which is the core of relations among civilisations, or, more specifically, between religions.

Dialogue requires more than one person. It calls for partnership, people accepting one another as equals, planning and working together.

In today�s world, dialogue must become a way of life. Population movements, the revolution in information technology and the global economy have made countries and nations interdependent. No human is an island, no country is an island, no community is an island. No community in a country, whether host or guest, can live closed into itself, seeking identity, authority and legitimisation through its own community.

As a process, dialogue calls upon memories, memories of discourses and memories of experiences that have released emotions. Dialogue, therefore, requires the healing power of memories, sensitivity to and understanding of the beliefs of the other and respect for differences. This is the basis on which I have developed my thoughts and educational work in Christian-Muslim relations, and which I would like to share with you today.

Christian-Muslim relations go back a long way in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere. Of course the history of these relations comprises a series of conquests, but they are also characterised by conversation and co-operation.

In the early centuries of Islamic civilisation, Islamic and Christian scientists and philosophers reflected together on issues of common concerns. Parenthetically, as we meet here today, we cannot ignore the contributions of the Spanish Islamic philosopher, Abu�l-Walid Ibn Rush (Averroes), to Latin thinking in the 12th century. This common reflection continues today. Within this framework I would just like to mention the contributions made by Christian Arab scholars in the early 20th century to Arab nationalism in the Middle East, and the body of thought developed by western and Muslim reformist thinkers on modernisation, development and secularism. These scholars did not discuss religion explicitly, but they did share ideas regarding such topics as revelation and reason. While they referred to each other�s writings and learned from each other, they did not, however, actively engage in dialogue.

As Christians, we can trace the conscious, if still timid, decision to begin dialogue with the Muslims to initiatives taken by the Vatican II and the World Council of Churches: the Vatican II decision in 1963 to respect Muslims and people of other faiths and the subsequent activities organized within the Roman Catholic Church; the decisions of the WCC, first in Broumana, Lebanon in 1966, to engage the Muslims in dialogue, then, in 1971 to create the Department of Dialogue with other living faiths and ideologies and, finally, in 1979 to draw up the guidelines for this dialogue. Since then, the two Christian bodies have organised regular meetings to dialogue on issues challenging both religions and providing explanations on dogma and religious law. Despite their many meetings, the recommendations they have made and the projects they have either initiated or sponsored, they have not prevented conflicts. The forces that trigger conflict in specific situations remain stronger than the understanding promoted through dialogue. One of the basic problems here is the lack of involvement by popular movements or the unorganised masses of the population in the dialogue process.

While the role of education is given prominence in Christian-Muslim conversations, that role is too narrowly defined. It is not enough to educate the future religious leaders, teachers of religious education, to review the textbooks for religious education and to monitor the media. Yes, these are important components of dialogue; and they help us to arrive at tolerance, reconciliation and the acceptance of the other as he or she is. But, this narrow scope ignores the great mass of people (particularly those who are not sensitive to religious and cultural differences) and it can lead the parties in conflict to abuse religion for their own gain. A glance at the inter-religious conflicts in the past decade speaks for itself.

In Christian-Muslim relations, and in other inter-religious and intercultural situations, we should now concentrate on and work with the people to insure that they have appropriated the results of the sponsored dialogues. To be in dialogue means to be non-sectarian. To be in dialogue means to understand the other. This is the basic message that should trickle down from formal meetings to the people. Following the profound pedagogy of the Brazilian adult educator, Paolo Freire, we should seek to make the people reflect and act upon the reality to be transformed through dialogical and problem-posing education.

This approach is revolutionary in that it challenges exclusivist notions of identity and raises the question of the legitimate sources of authority. This approach is implicit in Christianity and Islam, both of which advocate community solidarity, neighbourly love and tolerance.

Some people may find this approach difficult. But, women and men do not live in isolation; they are constantly interacting. Through education and awareness building, they may come to see their reality as they admit their prejudices about their neighbours (prejudices that may arise from signs and symbols or from the use of language and dress codes), and become sensitive to each other�s religious beliefs and cultural specificities. This educational process will also give them the skills and the tools with which to construct partnerships.

To conclude, I would like to describe to you a curriculum that I wrote with Dr. Reinhild Traitler, programme director of the Protestant Academy in Boldern Zurich. The curriculum is the fruit of our separate educational work in our institutions (Boldern and the WCC) and our joint work running workshops at various women�s meetings. The curriculum has been tested under the umbrella of the European Project for Interreligious Learning. Basically, it is a course to train trainers to make an impact on associations, charitable organisations and governmental and non-governmental organisations working on the grassroots level. The curriculum includes five modules. Each module takes place in an institution in a country in which the themes of the course and related problems are still relevant. For example, the theme on �History and Memories� will take place in Barcelona in co-operation with the Barcelona Interreligious Centre, Municipal Department of Assistance to Religious Groups and Individuals and the University of Barcelona.

We hope that this education process will complement the centuries-long conversation between Muslims and Christians and the decade-long dialogue between Christian and Islamic institutions. We hope further that it will create a world in which simple people will have the space to tell their stories to one another. In this way, they may recognise that their neighbours are human beings, no different from themselves and, that they, therefore, deserve respect. We hope that it will give them the opportunity to discover the value of partnership and to advocate for conflict resolution, transformation and, hence, for a new way of living together.

Finally, in all humility we should admit that to err is also part of education for dialogue. Education for inter-religious and intercultural living should also provide space for mistakes.