A remarkable intolerance within interreligious dialogue
An impression I got trying to get invited to an interreligious conference of Religions for Peace
Within religion there is a constant control of anything said by members of that religion if it conforms to the dogma.
In the past the intolerance within a specific religion could go as far as to condemning people who were seen as not conforming to the dogma to death.
The intolerance within interreligious dialogue is, of course much milder, but it can lead to the exclusion of anyone who is not an official representative of one of the accredited religions or of an organization recognized for its interreligious dialogue.
Remarkably such intolerance is never present within truly accomplished representatives of specific religions.
This is what I experienced with a Sudanese Sufi teacher who had thousands of disciples in Sudan, in Egypt and all over the world; Mohammed Osman was his name.
With him I stayed for one year, mostly in Cairo. When I met him I had mainly one question on my mind: can it be said, that in essence all religions are one?
It took me a full year to pose my question. But this year was filled with wonderful information about the religion of Islam.
He truly taught me to understand Islam. And when I finally was able to ask my question his reply contained a twofold teaching.
My question was: can it be said, that in essence all religions are one – or is there only one true religion?
He replied: there is only one true religion, it is Islam – but it is not the religion known by the name “Islam”.
From all I had learned about Islam I could understand because the “Islam” he meant describes the peace springing forth from being conform with the will of God.
This conformity can, of course, be reached in any of the religions, it can be accomplished if a member honestly takes his religions as a guideline to deal with his personal consciousness.
But then it may happen that by taking his religion as such a guideline this person can get into contradiction with the representatives of his religion who are tasked with controlling its dogma.
Because, sometimes such officials have a rather narrowminded understanding of the dogma. They never would agree with someone saying that in essence all religions are one, because in their view, there can be only one true religion and it is theirs. In their view all other religions, are wrong and need to be antagonized.
For that reason, it can happen, and in the past more it has happened more than once that, confronted with such representatives of their specific religion, such persons were accused of being heretics.
The most famous example, probably, is Jesus. But there are numerous other examples of people who have been put to death because they were suspected of being heretics.
Within interreligious dialogue, of course, no one will be put to death. But a similar mechanism is at work.
Here, the organizers of such dialogue have to watch out, that only representatives of the participating religions or of recognized dialogue organizations will be invited to speak.
Persons who engage in interreligious dialogue without being representatives of a dialogue organization or a recognized religion are likely to be excluded, because their participation could cause irritation with some of the delegates.
This is what happened to me in August 2019 at a big interreligious conference in Lindau, Germany, which was organized by “Religions for Peace”.
I had just completed a book outlining a way to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By applying a strictly interreligious perspective I was able to describe a procedure which could enable the parties involved in the conflict to question their own position and to understand the true needs of the opposing parties.
With this book, I thought, I would be an ideal dialogue partner for the representatives of each one of the religions present at the conference in Lindau.
Even though I had been accepted as a dialogue partner by one of the most prestigious participants of the conference, Rabbi David Rosen, with whom I have been in contact for the past 17 years, the organizers of the conference were skeptical about my work. And, just to be on the safe side, they kept me out. They did not allow me to participate in their conference. They also did not allow me to present my book at an exhibition area of the conference where partner organizations could present their work.
And when I then distributed some flyers about my book outside the conference, they prohibited that and said, if I continued, they would send in the police – something that reminded me of measures against heretics in the past.
As I talked about this to another “visitor”, also excluded from the conference, he said, that he too had the impression that the organizers could only see their organization but not the intention from which this organization had arisen. And that these organizers have indeed great similarity to the representatives of religions in the past who were, as the guards of orthodoxy, entitled to exclude certain individuals whose scope of mind they could not grasp.
hp | 2019-09-04
The Author of ‘Honorable Peace’
Gottfried Hutter
The author studied Catholic theology, history and political science. Originally from Salzburg, Austria, he went to live in San Francisco for five years. There he gained a sense of human beings’ potential, especially in terms of spirituality and civilization. This, in turn, motivated him to learn about other cultures and religions. He moved to Egypt and stayed for one year in Cairo, mainly experiencing the spiritual depth of Islam. Back in Europe, teaching Catholic religion in schools and studying Shamanism and native religions, he trained to become a psychotherapist. Working with psychiatric patients, he wrote his first book, Resurrection – Before Death. How to Use Biblical Texts in Psychotherapy. In his therapeutic practice he is now mainly working with severely traumatized Middle Eastern refugees. More ->
Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
Honorable Peace: There is no way to avoid what this book is offering
Honorable Peace. The new book “100 Years of Middle East Conflict. Honorable Peace. How Can Lasting Peace be Secured between the Muslim World and Israel” hardly fits any cliché. Yet, for the last 100 years the cliché prescriptions have not led to peace, just the opposite, so that today true peace seems further away than ever before.
Cover: Honorable Peace – The Book „100 Years of Middle East Conflict – an Honorable Solution. How can the Muslim World make Peace with Israel?”
As long as the Palestinian people cannot live in peace the entire Middle East will remain in turmoil.
This book offers a surprising solution; all the more surprising in that it is not foreign to the people of this part of the world. On the contrary it has been deliberately ignored for the past hundred years because in the view of most Western politicians including it would have violated their strict imperative of secularity.
This book violates their taboo on religion: the way to peace offered by this book draws on the most central quality of religion, its ability to enable people to feel empathy – even for people who would normally be seen only as recalcitrant competitors. This is the case of Jews in the eyes of Muslims, since the Jews are no longer willing to subordinate themselves under the religion of Islam, even though that subordination had given them peace for the previous thirteen hundred years.
The fact is that, throughout the entire process of establishing their new State, the Israelis never experienced empathy from the Muslims. No wonder, how could the Muslim world have accepted this new entity named “Israel” which took possession of a land big enough to incorporate millions of people from all over the world, if these newcomers were unwilling to subordinate and integrate? And how could the regular inhabitants of the land accept that these strangers be allowed to settle in the immediate vicinity of one the most holy places of Islam?
“God will destroy this wall”
The Jews do in fact have a very natural relationship to that land since it had been the land of the Bible – which is also an essential part of the historic background of the religion of Islam. But that historic chain was broken eighteen hundred years ago. At that time, almost all Jews were banished from the land, when the Romans brutally crushed their uprising. Subsequently, the population of the land became Christian, and later on, Muslim. So it remained for the next thirteen hundred years. So why ever should the Muslims of that area accept a Jewish repopulation?
It could be done only by force in a process similar to colonization. So, how could the Muslim population be persuaded to accept that?
Historically such things have been done by brute force. Here, however, even force could not succeed indefinitely, since a relatively small minority was implanted in a huge area among a population of a quite different culture. This is the case with the Jewish minority settling in the Middle East.
So, how could such a conflict find a peaceful solution?
Today, many people may say that most Arab states would like Israel to be their powerful ally against their main enemy, Iran.
But in the end, all these states are bound to admit that Israel cannot be their ally as long as the Palestinians are suffering.
In other words, a peaceful solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a prerequisite for harmony in the region. Before the Arab neighbors can genuinely befriend Israel, they will need an honorable peace. And that is exactly what this book is offering!
The author studied Catholic theology, history and political science. Originally from Salzburg, Austria, he went to live in San Francisco for five years. There he gained a sense of human beings’ potential, especially in terms of spirituality and civilization. This, in turn, motivated him to learn about other cultures and religions. He moved to Egypt and stayed for one year in Cairo, mainly experiencing the spiritual depth of Islam. Back in Europe, teaching Catholic religion in schools and studying Shamanism and native religions, he trained to become a psychotherapist. Working with psychiatric patients, he wrote his first book, Resurrection – Before Death. How to Use Biblical Texts in Psychotherapy. In his therapeutic practice he is now mainly working with severely traumatized Middle Eastern refugees. More ->
Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
Transcript: Honorable Peace – Video 0:30 Minutes English
My name is Gottfried Hutter. And I just completed a book about peace in Israel and Palestine. To me it was clear that all religions are basically one – but different aspects.
Empathy the way to peace. This was exactly what I wanted to tell.
And the title of my book is “100 Years of Middle East Conflict – Honorable Peace.
Honorable Peace – Video 0:30 Minutes English, Video Thumbnail
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Datenschutzhinweis: Mit dem Klick auf das Videovorschaubild verlassen Sie das Angebot unserer Webseite Keynote Address A keynote address by Gottfried ...
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Transcript: Honorable Peace – Video 3:54 Minutes English
My name is Gottfried Hutter. And I just completed a book about peace in Israel and Palestine. It became clear to me that all religions are one.
I also got the idea that I should find an enlightened teacher. I visited the Grand Sheikh of a Sufi Tariqa.
And he was really an impressive man. He agreed: all religions are one.
And there is an ideal Biblical example: the conflict between Jacob and Esau. Jacob betrayed his elder brother Esau to get the blessing of his father and thus his inheritance.
Esau was furious! He wanted to kill his brother. Jacob had to flee.
After 21 years Jacob had to return to secure his inheritance.
Esau heard of his brother returning. He hired 400 mercenaries to kill him.
Now Jacob needed reflection. The Bible describes it as a fight with God.
At the end of this struggle Jacob received a new name: the one who fought with God and prevailed, “Israel”!
He confronted his brother Esau – and the 400 armed men were waiting in the background.
Jacob prostrated before his brother Esau and he said: please forgive me.
Esau was so moved from this scene! And said, everything is ok, you are my brother. The country is big enough for both of us.
This is the story of the first Israel!
Jacob managed to make peace, peace between two deadly enemy brothers.
Today I could imagine, Netanyahu could do, what Jacob did: He could prostrate, and he could say to the Arab leaders: We have brought much suffering to you. We apologize. Please forgive us.
And after that, I am sure, the Muslim heads of States will say, we know of the connection of Israel to the land because all our prophets are Biblical prophets.
And after you apologized, we can grant you this land. And we will allow your people to settle all over the Biblical homeland.
Now we can have two countries and we can live in a brotherly manner. Peace is possible for both sides!
And all this I wrote in this book. And the title of my book is “100 Years of Middle East Conflict – Honorable Peace. How Can Lasting Peace Be Secured between the Muslim World and Israel?”
Honorable Peace - Video 0:30 Minutes English Feel free to embed this video <video poster="/wp-content/uploads/html5/en-short/video-background_en.jpg" controls="controls" width="1080" height="720"> ...
Honorable Peace - Video 3:54 Minutes English Feel free to embed this video <video poster="/wp-content/uploads/html5/en-long/video-background_en.jpg" controls="controls" width="1080" height="720"> <source src="/wp-content/uploads/html5/en-long/honorablepeace_en_master_longversion_v02_x264.mp4" ...
Datenschutzhinweis: Mit dem Klick auf das Videovorschaubild verlassen Sie das Angebot unserer Webseite Keynote Address A keynote address by Gottfried ...
