Page 58 - Seekers Guide Book

Interfaith Dialogue in Islam
There are many big and popular mosques around the
world, such as the Blue Mosque in Turkey and Sheikh
Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which are open to tourists
and visitors and to non-Muslims. If the visitors start
placing idols inside these mosques which were built
for a certain religious practice, it is but natural for the
government, or the authority of the mosque, to put in
place a check for such visitors in the future.

In today’s advanced security era, it may not be possible
that the previous experience pertaining to the Kabah be
repeated. Therefore, in principle it may be argued that the
Saudi Arabian government can lift the ban on the visit of
non-Muslims. But pragmatically this may not seem as an
option because once a practice becomes an established
tradition over centuries, changing it becomes a very
complicated matter. The current focus of the government
is to use its resources to manage the annual pilgrimage,
an event for which Muslims around the world are on
waiting-list. Most people get only one opportunity to
perform the pilgrimage in their lifetime.

7 What are some things Muslims
-
can learn from non Muslims?

ife is all about mutual learning. All of us should interact
Land learn from one other. Learning is a process and is
not restricted only to some specific issues. This is the age
of knowledge explosion and learning. One should imbibe
the spirit of learning and must learn from one and all. By

57