Religion & Peace

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.

In October of 2004, my family and I were enjoying a quiet getaway on the shore of the Red Sea in Egypt. We were living in Egypt at the time and had decided to visit…