Religion & Peace

When I was assigned the challenge to grow our weekly newsletter subscribers, I got stuck, I must admit. What could we offer that felt genuinely valuable? What would make someone click and want to stay? It had to be something that embodied HIU.

Analyze the Ottoman Empire’s millet system in Istanbul — an elaborate framework for governing religious difference. Learn how structured pluralism allowed for durable, yet unequal, interfaith coexistence.

My teacher, the late Professor Mahmoud Ayoub, used to say ignorance is the original sin of interfaith relations. Not malice, but ignorance. Malice, he believed, was simply ignorance that had found a megaphone.

Discover Abbasid Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, a scholarly center built on multifaith collaboration. Learn how Christians, Muslims, and Jews advanced knowledge through shared intellectual labor.