Interreligious Conversation on Solidarity at the French Institute
On Thursday evening, February 6th, I was privileged to participate in a panel discussion on interreligious perspectives on the concept of solidarity (Ar. taḍāmun) at the French Institute in Cairo. The conversation was moderated by Dr. Fatma Keshk, acquisitions editor for AUC Press in Egyptology. Along with my presentation from a Christian perspective, the panel featured Muslim (Dr. Mohamed Reda, Al-Azhar University) and Jewish (Dr. Sami Abraham Arie, A Drop of Milk Association) perspectives. In my presentation, I proposed the following definition of solidarity: an active movement toward identifying with people that are often different from us in their need, suffering, and grief. In that sense, solidarity often involves the relinquishment or at least suspension of power, status, or comfort for the sake of standing with others in their need.
One of the points I tried to emphasize was that very often in this kind of dialogue, religious participants will want to showcase the inspiring and powerful resources that our religious tradition might bring to this subject. In doing so, we often want to display the beauty of our ideals as a religious tradition. We often don’t want to discuss the sometimes tragic ways that our religious communities don’t live up to these ideals. Although it is certain to be painful, it would be beneficial if we had more forums that encouraged us to acknowledge the many ways we haven’t lived up to these ideals, however beautiful they may be, and have rather been controlled by our political, tribal, and sectarian identities. I am grateful to Adrian Guilot and the other organizers for the inivtation to participate in this meaningful conversation.
In other news, I was pleased to meet with Dr. Louay Mahmoud Saied, director of the Center for Coptic Studies at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. We are exploring the possibility of the Bibliotheca helping us to digitize our substantial archive of Arabic media sources on Christian-Muslim relations in Egypt. It was an encouragement to meet a Muslim scholar like Dr. Louay who is enthusiastic about the Coptic heritage of Egypt. As he explained to me, the Coptic heritage of Egypt is a treasure for all Egyptians.
Matthew Anderson
Director - Center for Arab-West Understanding
Executive Editor - Dialogue Across Borders (Brill)
February 9, 2025
Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.