Abraham's Table: The Basis of War

Abraham’s table had its first program for this season titled, the basis of war according to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After a wonderful dinner and reception, participants enjoyed fulfilling night with the panelists.

The panel started with the introduction of PII, Center for interfaith affairs, abraham’s table and todays’ session by Ashley Agbasoga, who is the program director for Abraham’s table.

The first speaker of the night was Rabbi Jack Bemporad, who has been Director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding since its inception in 1992. He gave examined war historically from the Judaic perspective. He defined war as “the worst possible thing” in the world. He talked about the doctrine of just war, and underlined that there is no Just war; however, there are some instances that people have to defend themselves which we can call “least unjust war”. More than that he added, we have prevent humanity from roots that may lead us eventually to a war before it is too late.

Second speaker of the night was Andrew Skotnicki, who is a Professor of Christian Ethics and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Manhattan College. He gave examples of wars throughout the history committed in the name God, religion or Land. Then he studied the term love according to Christian tradition which teaches its followers to love the enemy. “How can you fight with someone you love” he asked.  Professor Andrew Skotnicki also emphasized that there cannot be a just war according to the Christian faith.

Third speaker of the night was our very own director of the center for interfaith affaisr of PII, Mr. Ibrahim Sayar. He talked about the faith based categorization of man according to Quran. He gave the general judiciary structure of Islam which is to protect five given rights. Ms. Sayar gave the rules and principles of war before starting it and added “ I do not know either if there is a just war with the weapons that people are holing which do not differentiate between innocent and combaters. “ 

BIOGRAPHIES

Rabbi Jack Bemporad has been Director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding since its inception in 1992.  He is also Director of the John Paul II Center and Professor of Interreligious Studies at the Vatican’s Angelicum University in Rome, as well as Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine, NJ. 

Promoting inter-faith dialogue for more than 30 years, he has met with world religious leaders from Pope John Paul II to the Dalai Lama, and former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami. In 2010, he led eight leading American Imams and Moslem leaders to Auschwitz under a grant from the Adenauer Foundation, and as a result of their experience, the Imams issued a public statement condemning Holocaust Denial. Most recently, the CIU hosted a groundbreaking conference in New York attended by scholars, Rabbis and Imams, in which the methodology of interpreting their religious tests was explored. Author of  Our Age: The Historic New Era of Christian-Jewish Understanding, and editor ofThe Inner Journey: Views from the Jewish Tradition, Rabbi Bemporad also contributed the chapter on “Norms of War in Judaism” for World Religions and Norms of War, published by the United Nations University Press. In addition, he authored the articles on “Soul in Judaism” and “Suffering” in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for the Encyclopedia of Religion, as well as been honored with The Pave the Way Foundation’s “Inter-Religious Dialogue” Award, Sri Chinmoy’s “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award, and “The Peace and Tolerance Award” from the (Muslim) Interfaith Dialog Center.

Andrew Skotnicki  is a Professor of Christian Ethics and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Manhattan College. He also taught Christian Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He did his undergraduate work at Marquette University and received my Ph.D. in Religion and Society from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He has written three books, Religion and the Development of the American Penal System, Criminal Justice and the Catholic Church, and, most recently, The Last Judgment: Christian Ethics in a Legal Culture.