ISNA hosted Mormon Islamic studies scholar, speaker and author Daniel Peterson on Friday November 2nd at the ISNA Mosque in Plainfield, Indiana to learn more about the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative at Brigham Young University (BYU). Dr. Peterson’s trip to Indiana was occasioned by the Islamic Cultural Exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) and a speaking engagement in Fishers.
Coordinated by Roger Turner, BYU Alumni Affairs and Ahmed Elhattab, Executive Director of ISNA Development Foundation, the event was part of ongoing collaboration efforts to promote interfaith understanding and relations between Mormon and Muslim communities.
The Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI) was established to facilitate access to the wealth of the intellectual and spiritual tradition found in Classical Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and other languages of the Islamic cultural region. It has produced some truly splendid bilingual editions of classics such as the medical works of Maimonides, several works of Islamic Philosophy and a number of Syriac Christian Texts.
Dr. Peterson is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU. He is also the director of outreach for BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, founder and editor in chief of the Middle Eastern Text Initiative and author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics including a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007). He has lectured extensively across the United States, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and at various Islamic universities in the Near East and Asia.
Peterson cited New Testament scholar Krister Stendahl’s approach to interfaith relations as a good model to follow:
1. If you want to know what others believe, ask them. Don’t ask their critics or enemies.
2. Compare your best with their best, not their worst with your best.
3. Always leave room for “holy envy.”
“At a minimum, observing Krister Stendahl’s three principles would eliminate much of the religious strife in a world that is growing ever smaller and more interdependent and that can no longer afford such conflict. It goes beyond mere “tolerance” to actual appreciation of others, and to an eagerness to learn by being in contact with others.”
