met women activists from jordan, iraq, egypt, saudi arabia and palestine to talk about “how dialogue, education and community building contribute to harmonious living in a pluralistic world and the role of faith based organizations in responding to social change.” altho these topics are interesting, i felt that we were not able to mesh them with the realities lived by these incredible women, in the short time that we had. i would have liked to hear from them and then perhaps tried to explore some overlaps or some opportunities for partnering. but explaining to them how interfaith dialogue works in the US, when we are not at war, or under occupation, or oppressed by a military or dictatorial regime, seemed out of touch. yes, education is important and so is interfaith work, but what about the ongoing wars which are ravaging the countries these women call home? as americans, we have something to do with that. if interfaith dialogue is about respecting the other, if it’s about listening and then talking things thru, if it’s about negotiation and transformation rather than confrontation and attack, then why can we not apply these princliples to macro-level decisions that would transform both domestic and foreign politics? it’s an astounding disconnect. one of the women, a project manager from ramallah, called us out by pointing to the politics of zionism and how interfaith coexistence was disrupted in palestine after 1948. she asked: “how can we have interfaith dialogue when our holiest religious sites are being attacked and we are not allowed to pray there?” legitimate questions which were addressed by how, as interfaith practioners in america, the word zionism was painful for us to hear because it didn’t account for the pain of israeli jews and arabs. unfortunately, it’s this complete unplugging from reality which comes across as overly arrogant and hopeless. the women activists were amazing though – wish i could have had hours and hours of honest, one on one conversations with each and everyone of them.
