Flip the Script at Al Amana Centre

Why Al Amana Centre

• The world needs its people of faith to build sustainable Peace/Salam/Shalom that de-escalates violence and promotes mutual understanding and respect.
• There are few places in the world with the unique history, context, and geography to create a space for relationship among Muslims, Christians, and other religions in a way that promotes tolerance, mutual understanding and empathy, reconciliation and Shalom/Salam.
• Increased religious understanding and literacy is possible through experiential learning and proximity with those with diverse religious experiences.

Inertia and a lack of willingness/ability to engage with others.

Lack of grass roots interaction.

Huge and constantly growing levels of mistrust.

These were just some of the problems that a group of Finnish Christian and Muslim religious leaders identified in their communities when we asked them before coming to the Al Amana Centre. We hear this echoed time and time again from most of the groups that come to Oman.

We love when Muslims and Christians travel together to Al Amana Centre from other countries. For many people it “flips the script.” Finland is a Christian Majority country which recognizes the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Finnish Orthodox Church as constitutional national churches. Over the last decades, Finland has seen a sharp increase in immigrant populations, many of whom are Muslim. In Oman, Christians are in the minority, Muslim religious practices are audible and visible for all to see and hear. The group dynamic shifts, and the Muslim “guests” in Finland become hosts in Oman and the Christians learn to adapt to more Muslim patterns of life.

But there are other ways that we “flip the script” at Al Amana Centre. One of our favorite activities is to start with a cooking class led by an Omani chef. The particular chef for this group has been working with our groups for six years. He is a wonderful patient man, who is wonderful with our participants. Some people wonder why we do this activity, how is this interfaith dialogue? What is the purpose?

About halfway through the cooking class a female participant pulled me aside and expressed amazement that a Muslim man was cooking something she would eat! Even though they were all cooking together, the act of seeing a Muslim man take part in cooking a meal she would eat broke down a wall, a barrier, a misconception, and created a pathway to a new understanding and relationship to the religious other.