Nothing sets one off in the way an arrogant, self-aggrandizing personality does. These personality types make it near to impossible to engage in meaningful dialog. A stream of self-informed consciousness streams from their mouths while they remain impervious to any counter thought.In a recent conversation I had with an interfaith colleague, this was the unfortunate observation of previous speakers that had been invited to partake in a knowledge sharing endeavor. Instead of being open to questions and sharing opinions, they dictate their opinions as religious canon, often at the cost of putting down other faiths. Yes, I am specifically talking about Muslims here – Muslims who have no social graces and lack the “bedside manner” of participating in interfaith dialogs. This points to the serious need for Muslim communities to demand standards from our spiritual leaders and public mouthpieces.

The aim of this post is not to blast any of these persons in specific. In the aforementioned case I am not aware of any specific names and where there have been cases that I have witnessed firsthand, the names will remain anonymous, as it is not my objective to perform character assassination on any single person. But it does beg the question of why are we in this situation and what qualifications do these people have in representing us? I have witnessed firsthand the social fumbling of immigrant imams attempting to engage in dialog with non-Muslims and the results have been something of a plane crash. Many do not even possess the requisite oral skills such as being proficient in English as well as having sufficient background in the culture, history and politics of this country. Simply knowing that Islam is al-Haqq is not longer an acceptable qualification. It is a moot point that one believes that Islam [or Christianity or Hinduism] is the correct religion. If you’re a practitioner of that given religion it is safe to say you believe it’s correct. But the function of an interfaith dialog is not a boxing match where ones debates his or her theology. It’s about exchanging ideas and learning how to educate and be educated. We must never forget that we are there to learn as well. (more…)