INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE: CONDUIT OF PLURALISM OR DA’WAH

Abstract

Despite having been in practice for a few decades, implementing religious dialogue in Malaysia is still not very encouraging. This fact is reportedly linked to scepticism towards interreligious dialogue in general. Interreligious dialogue is frequently interpreted falsely as a means of advancing religious pluralism, which is destructive to aqidah. However, a case study on two Islamic organisations (the Islamic Propagation Society International (IPSI) and the Islamic Information Services (IIS), showed that these organisations had included inter-religious dialogue in their da’wah (propagation of Islam) efforts. The data from this case study was gathered using interview and document analysis methods. In addition to reviewing Islamic groups involved in interreligious dialogue and da’wah, this article also attempts to assess the roles of interreligious dialogue in da’wah as outlined in the Qu’ran. This article introduces a novel approach to the discipline of interreligious dialogue by combining a socio-psychological and theological framework to explore interreligious dialogue in Malaysia. The findings of this article offer practical implications for dialogue practitioners and organisations that will enable them to refine their own dialogue models based on the many styles and designs of dialogue identified. Additionally, the results show that dialogue is not detrimental to aqidah or a platform for religious pluralism, but rather it can be used to propagate Islamic da’wah.