Inter-Religious Symposia (IRS)

The Inter-Religious Symposia (IRS) at Al-Mahdi Institute is a ground for collaboration between scholars of different faiths in an environment of respect, mutual understanding, and sincere learning. It provides a space for those who are conversant with their respective traditions to critically discuss challenges, arising from encounters between different faith communities and organisations. Through open and honest discussions, the hope is to discover potential solutions drawn from diverging traditions and academic disciplines. Participants can share the range of opinions within their religious traditions and the complexity of different positions and become familiar with each other’s religious history and language. This will increase the appreciation of the commonalities of concepts, ethos and uniting purposes as well an understanding of the differences. The IRS hopes to facilitate a process of learning from one another and achieving the religious ideal of removing barriers between people of different faiths.

The IRS aims to provide space for scholars to:

• Share the plurality of positions within their respective religious tradition and methodological analyses on the chosen topics.
• Increase the understanding of similarities and differences, including the differences within apparent similarities in the concepts and ethos of other religious traditions.

Previous Meetings: