Now that you're angry...
I suppose I've been a bit of a world traveller. I truly have seen many places that people who live next door to me have not. The opposite is true, as well. My neighbors have seen places I'll never see. It's part of the beauty that is the human experience. So, I might have some small understanding that I try to share. For example, the recent "A Common Word Between Us and You" letter makes perfect sense to me.Traditionally, Islam has the belief in respecting the "peoples of the Book', which is to say, there is a tradition in Islam of ecumenical outreach to both Jews and Christians. It's not always been practiced, but this outreach is definitely within that tradition. I think that it's unfortunate that people like the Wahhabists get called "traditional" in western media, because they really break from tradition in Islam in that they shun non-muslims.
Now, of course, I'm not Muslim, and that is for a reason, so I would never want to be confused for some sort of expert or apologist. I've got my issues with Islam, too. (For example, I'm not too certain if the Prophet was truly a Prophet. that's a pretty major reservation, right there. Also, I don't think I agree with the stance on women in the Qur'an. That's another big one.) However, I think that it's crucial that we share what understandings we do have, in any format we can. If we go on the way we have, it's going to turn into the major conflict of our time. I'd prefer for the major conflict of our time to be how we saved the environment to sustain human life for an indefinite period.
There are things that defy my understanding, of course. I cannot even pretend to understand the Japanese outlook. I know very little, and understand even less. For example, I don't understand how Shinto has no tradition of charity when supposedly it believes that everything (including grains of rice) has a soul. That makes no sense to me, but it also strikes me as a culture that must operate on thoughts very different to mine.
Then, again, things in my own culture defy me. For example, how can George Bush claim to be a christian, a religion based in concepts of charity,and think that he can deny aid to Graeme Frost? Can you imagine if Jesus had made the sermon "Help your neighbors, but only when you feel it's suitable" ? I bet that Christianity would be less than a footnote had that been the message.
But, unless we reach an understanding, world wide, I really think it's not only possible, but probable that all of our cultures won't even have a history to write a footnote on. The bacteria that remains to represent life will have no memory of us.
