Clergies need a culture of exchange

By Marisa Heah

Photo by Marisa Heah

Born and raised in Damascus, Syria, Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat graduated with a degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic language in 1987 and a degree in Islamic Law in 1988. Being a scholar based in Baltimore, the US, as well as having visited many countries in the Middle East, Imam Arafat has extensive knowledge of Islamic issues and thinks that one of the biggest problems we are facing today, from a religious perspective, is ignorance and misperception of one another.  

This is why he established the Civilizations and Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (CECF), a cultural exchange programme that provides religious and cultural training for international students with the aim of bridging the gap between the East and the West. Having travelled to many countries, participating in seminars and conferences, he hopes that his journey to Malaysia will create and conceptualise new ways of interaction with the young about religious issues.  

In his presentation at SERI in July 2011, he pointed out that the situation in the US and the West in general, migration by the masses from what is known as Muslim countries to non-Muslim countries, is being experienced for the first time in the history of Islam. The 21st century is providing a new challenge, the challenge of migration. What are expected of Jordanian-Americans or Egyptian-Americans and how would today’s scholars address their obligations from a religious perspective?

Photo by Marisa Heah

Imam Arafat also shared and discussed what he observed in the Arab world, in particular the Arab Spring, and highlighted the need for religious institutions to be reformed in order to produce clergies that are well-equipped and have a realistic understanding of the challenges of the time. He believes that clergies, as religious leaders, are lagging behind at a time when the younger generation is communicating and interacting in new ways.  

For progress to take place he believes that there must be an exchange programme for clergies (Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc.) in order to broaden their understanding. He compared the culture of exchange in the Arab world to that in the US and stressed that in the latter, there is a strong culture of exchange in other professions such as among scientists, economists and business people, all except clergies, which is a cause for concern as religion continues to play an important role.  

Imam Arafat emphasised that countries like the US need to strike a balance between national interest and divine interest. Clergies should come in to counter the various interest groups that still put their narrow (monetary) interests ahead of the wider interest of society.