Today was my first day on the ground in Dubai, and I spent it… leaving Dubai and going to Abu Dhabi. I did that because of my faith. I'll work back up to that point.
It was a short night. There were five of us CCOPers on the flight from Paris. I mentioned in yesterday's post that we were delayed. Then it took quite a while getting through immigration, maybe because it isn't fully staffed after midnight(?). Thankfully one of our group had scheduled a van to take us to the hotel, and even more thankfully that van waited for us even though we were more than two hours later than the scheduled time. I got to my room last night at 2:52 am local time. Breakfast this morning was at 6:30.
Then the CCOP group of 40 people walked 15 minutes to a subway stop, and crammed ourselves in.
We rode about 60 minutes like sardines to a place where two chartered buses picked us up and drove us another hour to Abu Dhabi.
The occasion was the Christian-Muslim Dialogue on Climate meeting that had been arranged at the Grand Hyatt. Our Muslim hosts were incredibly hospitable and gracious. As I predicted yesterday, there were no attempts at conversion either way, just good dialogue about how our faith motivates us to care for this created world. We’re doing this because of our faith.
We were told it was a pretty big deal that this guy came to our meeting. His name is Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, and I’m guessing that’s quite a bit closer to what Abraham looked like than what I do. He gave a short talk in Arabic, and there was a woman in a sound-proof booth translating on the fly into these receiver/headsets we were given. I think when most of us think of Muslims, these are not the kind we think of. They are gentle and compassionate, caring for their fellow human beings regardless of creed or origin.
Another Muslim scholar was introduced as the 50th most influential Muslim scholar in the world today. His name is Aref Ali Nayed, and I got to sit next to him for lunch. He was born in Libya, but his family’s land and possessions were taken away by Gaddafi, so when he was in high school he was sent to America. He lived in Iowa, and then went to Canada for school in the sciences, philosophy, and theology. He even did a stint in Rome, studying the church fathers and Arab scholars.
His short talk (in English) was brilliant, drawing on important philosophical concepts (ask me about it sometime, and I’ll give my own lecture!), tying together ideas from the Qur’an and St. Augustine. During lunch when he asked about my own PhD work in philosophy of science, he started rattling off names that I myself could hardly remember.
We had good conversation and lots of laughs over delicious middle eastern food. Then they took us to the big mosque in Abu Dhabi, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever been to.
It was completed about 15 years ago and can accommodate 40,000 worshipers in this big main courtyard. We got a thorough tour, and I came away impressed with them, not in spite of faith, but because of my faith. (That statement too would be better unpacked over a long leisurely meal than in a quick newsletter while I’m significantly sleep deprived.)
Are there differences between us? Sure. Do I think my theological beliefs are correct? Sure (that’s the very definition of believing something!). Do I also think I’m probably wrong about some things? Sure.
I’ll leave it at that for today.
This is very interesting, Jim. Would love to sit down to dinner with you and Chris when you have time.
Loving these missives, Jim. Thoughtful, interesting, provocative. And sheesh, when did you become such an environmentalist?! :)