The Faculty of Shari’ah in An-Najah National University participates in the second Christian-Islamic meeting: “Coexistence: in the past, present and future, the only option”
- May 3, 2023
Under the patronage of the dean of the Faculty of Shari’ah Professor Jamal Zaid Al-Kilani, An-Najah Center for Religious Studies organized a second workshop on the Christian and Islamic Dialogue; and this comes within the Palestinian Academic alliance for Interfaith Dialogue. It took place in the Bible College in Bethlehem on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. There were almost eighty students and academics from An-Najah University and the Bible College participated in this workshop.
On this theme, the participants discussed the following issues:
- The challenges that encounter the Palestinian Christians and Muslims’ coexistence
- Why does diversity turn into dispute or conflict?
- Successful stories of coexistence
- Social Media’s role in reinforcing coexistence from the specialists’ perspective
- Methods of supporting Palestinian civil peace
A number of specialists and academics had an effective role in this workshop such as Doctor Amjad abu El-Ezz, the chairman of Social Science Department in the Arab American University who initiated and coordinated the alliance, Reverend Monther Ishaq, the academic dean of the Bible College, Professor Jamal Zaid Al-Kilani, the dean of the faculty of Shari’ah and an establishing member of the alliance. Other colleagues from an-Najah University who participated were Dr. Odeh Abdullah, the chairman of the Fundamentals of Religion Department, Dr. Muntaser Al-Asmar, Dr. Amer Jodallah who gave a speech on the concept of coexistence and the Islamic rules and foundations to achieve it; Dr. Ruqayya Arar, Dr Huthaifah Bdier, Ms. Rana Qadri and Mr. Said Abu Hijlah.
The participants from the Bible College were Reverend Jack Sarah, Dr. Charlie Abu Sa’di who talked about diversity and coexistence from the Biblical perspective in addition to Ms. Shireen Awwad, Mr. Haytham D’iek, Ms. Fida’ Ghareeb, Mr. Jibraeel Hanna, Dr. Andrew Bosh, the chair of Peace and Justice Institute in Bethlehem.
The team closed their tour by visiting the Church of Nativity which was led by Mr. Haytham D’iek who is specialist in archeology and historical sites.