Dear friend,

I've seen the enclosure, and I'd like to share my difficulty over the following sentence: Based on the Qur’anic dictum: ‘O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you’ we have also kept the forum open for God-fearing thinking people of other faith communities.

I support communication across all manner of differences (even though I am not "God-fearing" - since I don't really know what to fear or why).

Open communication is absolutely necessary, regardless of what any of the scriptures say, or do not say. To justify this (or anything else) with reference to what the Quran says can be self-defeating because the Quran, like any other scripture, can be read in very many different ways (that is the elementary lesson from contemporary literary studies). I am no student of the Quran but my impression is that whatever can be justified by reference to it can also be be refuted by reference to some other part of the text. That is not peculiar to the Quran; it is inherent in the human capacity for subordinating the use of reason to our prejudices.

Shia, Sunni, Deobandi, Barelwi, Ahl-i-Hadithi, Tableeghi Jamaati, Qadiani.... - everyone believes they have the correct interpretation of Quran, Hadith, etc. It is because many Muslims entertain the mistaken belief that they can actually find divine guidance by reading the Quran that they are riven by limitless, sometimes violent, sectarian contention.  

It seems to me that the only reasonable course open to us as human beings, who have to live together on this planet, is to leave all scriptures aside and look, instead, to the long courses of human experience and human reason. Think of Mutazilites within Islam!

Sincerely

Satish Saberwal