Building a Curriculum for a Culture of Peace

Rediscovering Shared Histories to Build a More Peaceful Future

What if religion, rather than dividing humanity, could teach us how to live together? A new initiative proposes a Curriculum for a Culture of Peace – a global program for schools with the mission to build a culture of peace among religions, spearheaded by the AlSadiqin Institute, which engages in historiographical study of the emergence of Islam, and by the IPCGE – The Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics, which promotes the implementation of the UN resolutions on culture and peace.

Seems like the best place to begin raising awareness of this effort is with the readership of the New York Parrot – a diverse, faith-based and socially active community. Feedback will be welcome!

Historiography
The basic framework for such curricula would be via historiography, that is, scrutinizing historical writings in the contexts in which they were written, and in this case, studying the early interactions of religious groups, and attempting to reconstruct what they believed
and how they saw each other.

Historiography is thus not simply the study of events, but of how communities perceived one another. When the histories of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are read as parts of an integrated whole, we see how God has worked among us, creating a divine diversity that reflects His mercy. This method equips students with tools to resolve misunderstandings and recognize shared origins.

The goals for such a curriculum would be:

To understand the influence of historical paradigms on religious and civil law.
To understand alliances during the struggles that occurred at the emergence of Islam.
To provide context for parts of Islamic history that seem disconnected from secular history, including the study of the how the development of the Islamic calendar restores meaning to events often treated as unrelated.
To make the other seem more familiar by providing an understanding of various modes of interpretation, and of each others traditions.

Indeed, if the founders of the Abrahamic faiths had been as narrow as some of their heirs have behaved, these traditions would not have inspired hope or attracted followers; something must be missing, and we are here to find it!

Religion as Part of the Solution: One Deen, Many Covenants

As Qatada (ra), one of the Prophet’s companions, taught: al-din wahad wa al-shari’a mukhtalifa – the religion is one, but the covenants are many. Rabbinic Judaism likewise teaches that proper Muslims are complete believers, guaranteed a portion in the World to Come.

Historical records show that early Muslims and Jews recognized each other as believers, encouraged one another, and even fought and died for one another.

The Qur’an affirms this universal framework explicitly: “Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans, those among them who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.” (Qur’an 2:62)

In Judaism, that one deen is expressed through the Seven Laws of Nuh/Noah (pbuh). These laws define the basic covenant that all humanity may share. Any religion that upholds these laws is considered correct from the perspective of the Children of Israel. The Deen of Islam and the Seven Laws of Noah thus act as a unifying force for humanity.

The Seven Laws of Noah are:
1. Prohibition of Idolatry — Serve the One and Only God
2. Prohibition of Blasphemy — Respect and submission to God
3. Prohibition of Murder — Protection of life
4. Prohibition of Adultery — Protection of the family
5. Prohibition of Theft — Protection of property
6. Prohibition of eating meat from a living animal — Moral limits on using creation
7. Establishment of Courts of Justice

A parallel appears in Qur’an 17:22–36, which mirrors the Noahide structure: 17:22 prohibits idolatry

(#1), 17:23 prohibits blasphemy

(#2), 17:32 prohibits sexual immorality

(#4), 17:33 forbids homicide

(#3), 17:34 forbids theft

(#5), 17:35 establishes legal justice

(#7), and 17:36 corresponds to dietary limitations

(#6), supplemented by Qur’an 2:173 and 5:3.

Greek Philosophy and the Demand of Sameness

One part of the curriculum will examine Greek philosophical ideals that equated equality with sameness, and that Greek thought rejected Abrahamic concepts of holiness. Judaism and Islam on the contrary insist that covenantal diversity is God-given, and that holiness
requires distinction; equality is thus not sameness. In the 11th century CE, Islamic philosopher Al-Ghazālī disputed challenges from Greek philosophy by defending divine creation, resurrection, and God’s involvement in the particulars of life, he also paved the way for greater tolerance within Islam of its various sects.

Diversity as Divine Design

In modern Western culture, as in ancient Greece, equality is often misinterpreted as uniformity. Yet both Islam and Judaism insist that all are equal before God while fulfilling distinct covenantal roles. For example, in Islam, the touchstone of what enables one to be able to testify in a religious court regarding religious matters, such as witnessing the new moon, is respect for salah and zakat; In Judaism, the touchstone of what enables one to be able to testify in a religious court regarding religious matters is Sabbath observance. These are different expressions of a shared value – that religious testimony can only be accepted by an observant individual.

How We Get There
Through historiography, students see peace not as an abstraction but as a lived historical reality. In these pages, I aim to explore the various sects of Judaism during the turn of the first millennium, the influx of Jewish groups to Himyar at different stages of history, bringing various and sometimes conflicting streams of Judaism at different stages of development, The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614CE compared with the Islamic Conquest of 638 CE, the Salifat al Medina – which is the Constitution of Medina, and more.

A curriculum rooted in these discoveries teaches that coexistence is demonstrably possible. Follow this page for more particulars of this developing Curriculum for a Culture of Peace!

“If we replace the modern demand for sameness with an appreciation of divine diversity, we will see that the Other was never a stranger, but a fellow guardian of the covenant.” — Rabbi Ben Abrahamson

Author Bio
Rebecca Abrahamson is passionate about Muslim-Jewish relations, and in that capacity co-directs the Al-Sadiqin Institute with her husband, Rabbi Ben Abrahamson.