Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue: Present Status and Future Outlook

Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue: Present Status and Future Outlook

by Yoshiaki Sanada

True interreligious dialogue does not mean people of different faiths merely tolerating or coexisting with one another. Even less does it mean simple exchanges of information or simple insistence on one's own point of view.

As is widely known, the Second Vatican Council, which convened from 1962 to 1965, took interreligious dialogue, at that point still only a small trickle, and mobilized it into the major global current that it is today. Since then, representatives of religions from around the world have taken many opportunities to meet under one roof and hold various types of conferences to foster mutual understanding and respect for religious diversity, and to discuss the many issues now confronting humankind.

Religions for Peace Middle East Conference: Japanese Religions Meet Islam

The World Conference of Religions for Peace is part of this global trend toward interreligious dialogue. The religions of Japan, particularly the religious organizations and leaders that make up the Japanese Committee of Religions for Peace, have clearly professed their belief that there can be no peace among nations and no peace in the world without interreligious dialogue and cooperation and have vowed to take on the mission of acting as emissaries of peace.

With respect to relations with the Islamic world, of particular note was the Conference on the Middle East that was convened in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1992. Deeply concerned about the Gulf War occasioned by the Iraqi army's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the Japanese Committee invited religious leaders to Japan from the Middle Eastern Islamic world, as well as from Judaism and Christianity. As a first attempt by Japanese religious leaders to take the initiative to build bridges toward peace between Islam and other religions, it marked a completely new departure.

Religious Summit Meeting on Mount Hiei

Predating this conference was the Religious Summit Meeting on Mount Hiei, convened in August 1987, when the religions of Japan organized the Japan Conference of Religious Representatives in order to mobilize their combined strength to bring together leaders of the world's religions, including Islam, in Japan. Ten years later, in 1997, Japan's religious organizations again mobilized to cooperatively hold the Interreligious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace.

However, as the world prepared to welcome the twenty-first century--which was supposed to be the "Century of Peace"--the curtain was instead wrenched apart by terrorism and war, crushing the hopes and prayers of a great many people. The simultaneous acts of terrorism unleashed on the United States on September 11, 2001, were an enormous shock to the world.

Reacting to the various developments throughout the world following the September 11 terrorist attacks, religious leaders in Japan invited religious leaders representing Islam to Japan in August 2002, on the fifteenth anniversary of the Religious Summit Meeting on Mount Hiei, for the Interreligious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace: Dialogue between World Religions and Islam. With deep concern for the misunderstanding, prejudice, and hatred regarding Islam that spread throughout the world in the wake of these terrorist attacks, this gathering was held to dispel misunderstanding of Islam, and to join hands as religious practitioners desirous of peace in order to deepen mutual understanding through dialogue and promote progress along the path toward peace.

Interreligious Dialogue Starts with "Encounters"

Despite these sincere efforts by religious leaders, it seems that there are still some very steep slopes to climb on the way toward interreligious dialogue with Islam, as evidenced, for example, by the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, by the Taliban in the name of attacking idolatry, an act that further marred the image of Islam with Buddhists in Japan and people around the world. However, it is true that the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) sent a mission to meet with the Taliban and request them to withdraw the order to destroy the Buddhist statues before it occurred, on the grounds that destroying Buddhist statues is inappropriate according to Islamic law (Shari'ah), and that Islamic society would not sympathize with such an act. Unfortunately, the discussion ended without agreement, but when I learned of the effort made by the OIC, I was encouraged, and came to feel that the road to interreligious dialogue would not be such a long one after all.

As in relations among people, all dialogue among religions starts with an "encounter." Encounters lead to conversations, and conversations lead to cooperation (working together), and cooperation leads to more conversations and new encounters. As this process develops, it starts to gradually spiral upward, growing step by step into mature and fruitful interreligious dialogue and cooperation.

Issues Bearing on Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue

I would like to raise just three points for careful consideration as we think about future prospects for Buddhist-Islamic interreligious dialogue.

First, let us increase both the quantity and the quality of opportunities for Buddhist-Islamic encounters. The geographic and historic relationship of Islam with Buddhism, particularly Japanese Buddhism, and the paucity of Muslims residing in Japan have contributed to the scarcity of opportunities for mutual dialogue. On the other hand, this also means that there is no negative legacy between the two religions, as is seen in the history of Europe and the Islamic world. The religions of Japan, and particularly Japanese Buddhism, can take on the important role and mission of building bridges to peace between Islam and other religions, as symbolized by the 1992 Religions for Peace Conference on the Middle East.

For this very reason, more numerous and higher quality venues for encounters between Islam and Buddhism are needed. In this context, the presence of the Japan Muslim Association as a full member of the Japanese Committee of Religions for Peace will no doubt lend powerful support to realizing more meaningful dialogue and cooperation between these religions.

Second, true interreligious dialogue does not mean people of different faiths merely tolerating or coexisting with one another. Even less does it mean simple exchanges of information, simple insistence on one's own point of view, or mere declamations in a religious debate. It should be a dialogue in which participants open their hearts to one another in a spirit of mutual respect, lend their ears to others bearing witness to faiths different from their own, and search more deeply for ways to improve their own approach to the will of God and the Buddha.

With respect to this issue, the dialogue between Islam and Buddhism in Japan has not necessarily reached full maturity, due to difficulties posed by the geographic and historical context. In fact, one of the few opportunities so far for such dialogue, the Interreligious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace at Mount Hiei in August 2002, seemed to have been closer to an opportunity to learn about Islam through the medium of declamations in an Islamic religious debate, rather than an interreligious dialogue per se.

To broaden the path toward interreligious dialogue with Islam in the future, it would be a good policy to carry out such dialogues in ways that are as realistic as possible, bearing in mind that interreligious dialogue can take the five following forms:

(1) Interreligious dialogue based on everyday life
In this type of dialogue, people of differing religions use their common experiences of faithful devotional practice in their own respective religions as the basis for talking together, working together, performing service together, and living fulfilling lives together, wherever they might be--in their homes, schools, workplaces, or local communities.

(2) Interreligious dialogue based on socially responsible action
In this type of dialogue, people of differing religions work together to take social action in pursuit of ideals common to their religions, such as world peace, the happiness of humankind, and the alleviation of suffering.

(3) Interreligious dialogue based on shared religious activity
An example of this kind of dialogue is the series of East-West Spiritual Exchange programs between Buddhist and Catholic clerics, in which shared religious activities form the basis for interreligious dialogue.

(4) Interreligious dialogue based on prayer
In this kind of exchange, people of different religions pray together, not in any one way but each in their own respective way, for the realization of ideals shared by their religions, such as world peace, the happiness of humankind, and the alleviation of suffering.

(5) Interreligious dialogue based on theology
Theologians of different religions and experts in other fields engage in sincere theological dialogue and discussion as they seek effective ways for religions to fulfill their missions in society. This type of dialogue should function to deepen mutual understanding and cultivate each participant's own comprehension as they consider how to join forces to realize the missions common to their respective religions.

Naturally, the appropriateness of each of these five types of dialogue will depend on the level of learning of the participants, as well as on the personal, social, and local factors bearing on the environment of the exchange. We should also keep in mind that these five types of interreligious dialogue should not be set up and carried out through separate mechanisms; rather, they should be connected so as to be mutually related and complementary.

A profound lack of understanding, and sometimes misunderstanding and prejudice, about Islam itself can be seen in Japanese society. However, are Buddhism and Islam really completely alien religions? Both emphasize unifying relationships. Very interesting in this context is dialogue in the field of comparative religion about tawhid in Islam and the law of dependent origination in Buddhism, (which defines the interdependence of all phenomena). Another major theme is the similarity between the concept of the one God as defined in Islam and the dharma-kaya (the Law-body of a buddha) in Buddhism. Both religions emphasize equality over independence, and dialogue from this perspective of equality (over gender and race, as well as among social classes) should also be fruitful.

In a cultural and religious environment such as Japan's, the most essential type of interreligious dialogue is most likely number five, theological dialogue. This would promote deeper mutual understanding among religious practitioners; by mutually imparting knowledge about each religion's doctrines, ceremonies, practices, activities, and organizations we can learn about one another's patterns of thought and action. We can also expect dialogue participants to communicate the mutual understanding gained and to give appropriate guidance to members of their respective religions, as well as to ordinary people, gradually bringing illumination to their societies.

Third, interreligious dialogue must develop to the level of the respective participants walking together, working together, and serving together by allowing the different religions to cooperate toward addressing the common concerns of religions, such as world peace, the happiness of humankind, and the alleviation of suffering. The humanitarian aid provided to the Iraqi Inter-Religious Council for Peace by the World Conference of Religions for Peace and its Japanese Committee can be seen as evidence of this kind of interreligious dialogue and cooperation.

Yoshiaki Sanada is a professor of law who has taught Western legal history and comparative law based on Islamic law at Chuo University's School of Law in Tokyo. Since 1994 he has been a guest professor at the Institute of Comparative Law of the China University of Politics and Law in Beijing. He is also director of the Peace Research Institute of the Japanese Committee of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

This article was originally published in the October-December 2006 issue of Dharma World.


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