The Impact of Religious Pluralism on Interfaith Dialogue in Different Regions

Oct. 7 was not the first time that interfaith efforts faced disruption. In New York City, 9/11 led to an increase in interfaith activities. In larger cities, interfaith centers were established to bring together faith leaders from different religious traditions for dialogue and prayer. In smaller cities, however, interfaith work remains less institutionalized and instead relies more on local participants without formal leadership. Informal institutions and cultural norms prevail everywhere but people moving across religious boundaries, language barriers, and national borders often find themselves transgressing unfamiliar local cultural norms. Therefore, the impact of disruptive events like Oct 7 or 9/11 varies across multifaith communities. Ethnographic fieldwork in Germany and the United States indicates that cultural transgressions are less tolerated in regions with less religious pluralism. There appears to be more forgiveness in more pluralistic regions with sustained interfaith activities because in such settings sometimes the transgressor is variably also transgressed.