A Jew and a Muslim walked into an auditorium.
And they had a conversation. No joke. For an audience of more than 700, the two men spoke of building bridges between their grandchildren in a world where the fight over Israel has driven them apart.
Akbar Ahmed and Judea Pearl have been touring the world for the past five years acting as conduits for a dialogue between two religions that desperately need to talk.
Ahmed is the world’s foremost scholar on contemporary Islam and the former High Commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom.
Pearl is a professor of computer science at UCLA and known in the field of artificial intelligence, but has garnered even more attention as the father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
Following his son’s death, Pearl and his family founded the Daniel Pearl Foundation, whose mission is to foster cross-cultural understanding.
Both men feel that the issues between the three Abrahamic faiths — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — have reached a crucial point at which their conflicts must be dealt with swiftly.
Their conversations are meant to act as a stepping-stone to further and encourage dialogue and action.
Last week, the men came to USM’s Abromson Center for the third annual Douglas M. Schair Memorial Lecture on Genocide and Human Rights.
Toward the beginning of the discussion, Ahmed characterized the view of Islam in the West as a “gross misunderstanding.”
The two also noted that there are dangerous misperceptions coming from all sides.
They cited a 2006 study by the Pew Research Center that found Westerners view Middle Eastern Muslims as violent and intolerant fanatics.
The same study also found that a majority of the Middle Eastern Muslim world sees Westerners as selfish and immoral as well as violent and fanatical.
These just part of the myriad deep-seeded mischaracterizations against which Ahmed and Pearl are fighting.
When the two men first took to the stage five years ago, they faced some hesitation.
They explain that people were fearful that the discussions would erupt into shouting matches, but both men, who are now close friends, have made sure they remain level-headed even when they disagree.
“It shows a disrespect for the audience when you have an agenda,” says Ahmed. “It dismisses the audience.”
They follow two rules during their dialogue. First, no issue is taboo. Second, to have respect at all times.
Senior Jeremy Smith, a political science major, was impressed by the two men and their demeanor. “I thought both of them were extremely well informed and the whole idea of the discussion was interesting,” he said.
Smith has a greater understanding of the issues than a majority of his peers – after high school, he spent time in the West Bank and in the Balatta refugee camp. He wanted to get a first hand experience of what was going on in the Palestinian territories.
While he realizes that most students will never be able to have such an experience, he wishes his peers would take a stronger interest in these issues.
“Watching the news would be a start,” he said. “And after that, taking advantage of discussions like this here on campus.”
In a similar vein, Pearl says not to underestimate learning more about your own culture.
He says more people need to read and learn about these cultures, and then to go out into the world and engage with others.
“Talk and express yourself,” says Pearl. “Go to other countries, like my son Danny did. Spread friendship, smile and make friends.”
The end of the event gave the audience the chance to ask questions. One question, regarding foreign policy decisions our next president might make, brought Ahmed to a point about his home country of Pakistan.
Ahmed explained that the majority of aid the U.S. gives Pakistan goes toward weapons that are often used against Pakistani civilians. This country, a key U.S. ally in a torn region, is full of people who hate Americans – it’s not a very good investment, Ahmed describes, if you’re buying hatred.
In order to turn this around, he suggested that the next presidential administration place stipulations on the billions it gives to Pakistan. If they earmark it for schools and books – the country has a deep-rooted value for education – it would not take long to change attitudes.
Both men agree that progress has been made in recent years for Muslim-Jewish interactions, citing the Saudi Arabian king’s invitation to a group of rabbis to participate in an interfaith dialogue in his country. The Saudi king also met with Pope Benedict last year.
According to Pearl, these are signs that there is a shift toward a “change of climate.”