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TechnoratiIn an opinion piece, Dr. H.A. Hellyer, a consultant in West-Muslim relations, welcomed the "strong evangelical component" at the meeting.
"These were religious people; they weren’t interested in diluting their faiths," he wrote in a commentary published Saturday by The National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates. "And in that, a type of sincerity emerged that was perhaps the greatest benefit of the initiative."
Professor Miroslav Volf, a leading organizer of the conference who also heads the Center for Faith and Culture, said during the news conference that the most important learning between the two communities took place over "coffee, tea and meal conversations."
WEA leader Tunnicliffe, who represents some 420 million evangelicals worldwide, invited Muslim leaders to take their bridge-building initiative one step further by learning more about evangelicals.
"Muslims feel they have been stereotyped and stigmatized in the media. As evangelical Christians we feel the same stereotyping," he said during closing remarks Thursday.
"We are a diverse community of Christians yet we are often portrayed through the media as being tied to one political agenda, one view of eschatology, and intolerant of all others," shared Tunnicliffe.
He said evangelicals share a "commitment to some core biblical truths" but hold a "diversity of views on many issues."
"Just as we promise to seek to move beyond the stereotyping of Muslims found in the media, can I ask you, my Muslim friends, to get to know us beyond what is reported in the newspapers and television programs? If we are going to continue to build this new bridge this must be a part of the architecture."
The "Common Word" conference was the first of a series of conferences to take place in the fall and next year that will center on promoting peace and understanding between the Abrahamic faiths. Future conferences are scheduled in October at Cambridge University, November at the Vatican, March 2009 at Georgetown University, and October 2009 at Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute in Jordan.
Correction: Thursday, August 21, 2008:
An article on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008, about Christian and Muslim leaders supporting religious freedom and further interfaith dialogue incorrectly reported that Leith Anderson, president of National Association of Evangelicals, was among evangelical leaders at the July 28-31 conference who agreed to sign a collaborative document. The Christian Post confirmed with the NAE office that Anderson did not sign the document.
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