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Far More in Common

Becky Steimle
“Building Bridges, Not Walls” interreligious panel discussion at DSHA fosters understanding. 
If there was one shared take-away from DSHA’s recent interreligious dialogue, “What do we really know about Islam?,” it was this: We share many more values with people of other faiths than we realize.
 
As part of this year’s Diversity and Inclusion programming, entitled “Building Bridges, Not Walls,” leaders representing five world religions convened on the Robert and Marie Hansen Family Fine Arts Theater stage October 10 to share the foundation of each of their faiths. DSHA students and parents, as well as people from outside the DSHA community made up the audience of about 100.
 
Parent experience created desire to share
DSHA parent and Parent Education Committee member John Dunn brought the interreligious discussion concept to DSHA Principal Dan Quesnell after experiencing a similar event several months earlier. “It was at a public forum in Elm Grove, and I’d also had the opportunity to experience a roundtable discussion that included Sikh, Islamic, Catholic, Hindu and Bahai faith leaders,” says Dunn. “Seeing that kind of open, respectful communication, especially today when things are so polarized, is a very powerful thing. I wanted more people to experience it.”

To assemble the panel, Dunn worked with Judith Longdin of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Concerns of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and Tom Heinen of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee. The panel included Father Philip Reifenberg, Pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Elkhart Lake; Shaykh Noman Hussain, Imam and Resident Scholar at Islamic Society of Milwaukee; Rabbi Moishe Steigmann of The Spark Wisconsin and Rabbi at Congregation Cnesses Israel; Janan Najeeb, founder and president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition and director of The Islamic Resource Center; and Reverend Dr. John R. Walton, Jr., Chair of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee and pastor of Calvary Baptist Church.

Church calls for understanding, acceptance
Americans today can be ill-informed by media sound bites, social media and nuggets taken out of context, Quesnell says, noting that the Church calls Catholics to actively participate in meaningful dialogue with people of other religions.
 
“Interreligious dialogue is a necessary condition for peace in the world,” Pope Francis wrote in 2013, “and so it is a duty for Christians as well as other religious communities. In this way we learn to accept others and their different ways of living, thinking and speaking.”
 
Dialogue builds relationships
Dunn says he expects some in attendance at the DSHA event will be moved to share their experience. Dialogue begets more dialogue, Dunn believes, which leads to depth of understanding and the ability to work together.
 
“In the midst of all the difficulty in the world today, it’s refreshing and positive and empowering to know human dignity and care for the individual is what so many people want,” he says.
 
“It dispels myths and stereotypes. It fosters dialogue for us and for our young people and, today, that’s what we really need.”
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