The Islamic-Christian Alliance (ICA) is a grass roots effort to explore the similarities of the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths. The main purpose of this alliance is to foster peace between Christians, Jews and Muslims by allowing believers to better understand each others’ faiths.
The Principles of the Alliance
The main goal of the Islamic-Christian Alliance can be summed up in one three-word phrase: “Peace through understanding.” The ICA encourages encounters between believers at a community level, and desires to lift up what the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths both hold in common. The ICA hopes that those who learn of the common ground between the three great Abrahamic faiths, and who participate in interfaith dialogue within their communities, will encourage greater understanding and tolerance of the beliefs of the world’s three great monotheistic religions.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity do indeed hold many beliefs in common. All three believe fervently in the unity of God. All three trace their beginnings back to the promises made to Abraham, the Iranian desert wandered who found himself following God to Palestine. They uphold the same basic moral tenets, and encourage the same three basic spiritual practices of tithing, fasting and regular prayer. All three believe the creation of the universe and the origin of life to be the work of God alone, and trace the origin of human life in their sacred scriptures to the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Islam acknowledges the prophetic role of Jesus, his virgin birth of Mary, and his special place in creation as God’s Messiah, even if it does not share Christian belief in Jesus’ divinity and his role as redeemer and savior. Jews, while not recognizing Jesus’ divinity, have been more interested of late in his teachings and role within 1st century Judaism. These similarities are often glossed over by the media, which tends to treat all world religions as the same and often fails to highlight the common roots they share.
The ICA will bring together groups from these three faiths to communicate with each other and learn together of these similarities that could constitute common ground between the faiths. From this, a new understanding will develop to pave the way for peace, harmony, and a cultural exchange of ideas, and better relationships between Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Online Component
Extensions, Inc., a social network search engine development company, has chosen to ICA as a candidate for a new micro social network that will make use of the EXT networking tools and technologies. EXT social networks were developed specificially with the goal of taking social change oriented causes and developing an interactive social network which would help move that cause forward.
EXT will create a network around the ICA’s concept of developing peace through understanding between Christians, Jews and Muslims at a local level. Members will use the site as a place for discussion, to coordinate the work of volunteers, to generate awareness, and to combine the many grass roots efforts currently underway across the United States and abroad to support dialog between Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
Real Life Component
Peace, tolerance, understanding, and unity are powerful ideas that have formed the rallying cry for many movements, from the abolition of slavery to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender rights movement. The ICA will encourage the growth of these ideas in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities by providing a number of cause-oriented teaching materials and organizational tools.
Some of the materials the ICA hopes to produce include Christian, Jewish and Islamic video information series, subscription materials in the form of electronic newsletters and journals, protocols for meetings, forums, and joint prayer opportunities, and testimonials both written and on video of successful encounters between Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The ICA will also equip local organizers to host and conduct their own forums and meetings. Some of the events the ICA encourages and can provide advice on include informational speaker series, community meetings between churches and mosques, cultural exchange programs, and Q&A sessions about Islam and Christianity. They also hope to use the new EXT social networking platform to form local ICA groups in different localities across the United States, especially those areas where Christians, Jews and Muslims live in close proximity and in large numbers.