Religion and the Middle East Reflection

Maddy did a great job with her organization of her panel last Wednesday, where she recruited three speakers to talk about their experiences as religious leaders in their communities and their ties to the Middle East. First and foremost, I would like to recognize Maddy for her adaptation to unpredictable conditions with the event. She had to manage the panel while two speakers were running late as a result to traffic and adapt her questions to the speakers' responses. The three speakers "represented" the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They each discussed their relationship to religion and knowledge on the significance of Jerusalem in a nuanced and understanding manner. The event went wonderfully because of the decisions the speakers made. First and foremost, the Christian speaker set clear boundaries on the discussion and talked candidly about his faith. He explicitly stated that Christians had historically done wrong in the region, which after reflecting with Alex, a fellow Global Scholar, surprised us both, as it was not vital to the point he was making yet reflected his honest attitude towards the discussion at hand. The speakers who addressed their experiences with Judaism and Islam were similarly excellent in their presentation. A point that the Jewish speaker emphasized was the inability of religion to address all issues face, whether it be Judaism, Islam, Christianity, or non-Abrahamic religions. The themes that recurred throughout the presentation were the usage of religion to bring people together and the non-religious nature of the conflict in the Middle East. All speakers were in agreement that the actual struggle in the Middle East can be boiled down to a power struggle, and they also provided information on the divisions between Israeli and Palestinian people with anecdotes from their visits to the Middle East. I was overall blown away by how eloquently and effectively the speakers could present their points and address the themes that Maddy planned to touch on.