Abstract
The objective of this study is to, (1) measure level of understanding of religious leader (Islam and Christianity) on the basic concept of interfaith dialogue, (2) analyse the factors of the understanding developed and (3) analyse its effects on their social relation. This study uses the purposive sampling method in determining the appropriate respondents and total respondents for Islam dan Christianity which are 36 and 37 respectively. The authors use the method of questionnaire in collecting data and Likert Scale (1-5) in measuring the level of understanding and its effect, which is developed as the Skala Tahap Kefahaman Dialog (STKD) and Skala Kesan Hubungan Sosial (SKHS). The authors also use the Fixed Comparison Method and the Matrix Analysis in analysing the collected data, whereby the results were descriptive in nature. A major conclusion that could be drawn from the study is, (1) the level of understanding between Muslim and Christian Religious Leaders on the basic concept of the interfaith dialogue is equal as both are in the category of “Faham (F)” the fourth level of the Skala Tahap Kefahaman Dialog (STKD). (2) The main factors which contribute to this understanding are (a) Factor 1 (F1): level of education/formal education on religion, (b) Factor 2 (F2): past experience in interfaith dialogue activities and (c) Factor 3 (F3): level of respondent religiosity. (3) Even though the level of understanding is equal for both groups of respondents but the Christian Religious Leader has a higher scale “Tinggi(T)” on the effects of the understanding towards social relation in comparison to the Muslim Religious Leader whose level of understanding is in the mid-level of “Sederhana (SD)” based on the Skala Kesan Hubungan Sosial (SKHS). Using the Matrix Analysis, the result shows that there is a correlation between the ISSN: 2201-6333 (Print) ISSN: 2201-6740 (Online) www.ijern.com 2 understandings on the interfaith dialogue basic concepts with the respondents’ social relation but it is contributed by different factors for every group of respondents. Thus, this study has found that Factor 4 (F4): Factor of Current Policy (Organization) has a heavy weightage which forms an overall average impact to the Muslim Religious Leader’s social relation only in the scale of “Sederhana (SD)”. On the other hand, the Christian Religious Leader scored “Tinggi(T)” for their social relation which is contributed by Factor 1 (F1): level of education / formal education on religion and Factor 4 (F4): Factor on the Current Policy (Organization).
Highlights
Background of the studiesThe implementation of the inter-faith dialogues in Malaysia has progressed for half a century (Ghazali Basri, 2005; Yusri Mohamad Ramli, 2007; Wan Sabri Wan Yusuf and Arfah Ab Majid, 2012) or 55 years
To determine or measure the level of understanding of Islam and Christian religious leaders towards the basic concept of interfaith dialogue, the authors has built a scale of understanding identified as “Level of Dialogue Understanding Scale/ Skala Tahap Kefahaman Dialog (SKTD)” based on the Level of Dialogue Understanding Scale/ Skala Tahap Kefahaman Dialog (STKD) developed previously by Khairulnizam Mat Karim and Suzy Aziziyana (2012)
This scale was constructed based on the total score in each category of the basic concept of interfaith dialogue expected from a respondent
Summary
Background of the studiesThe implementation of the inter-faith dialogues in Malaysia has progressed for half a century (Ghazali Basri, 2005; Yusri Mohamad Ramli, 2007; Wan Sabri Wan Yusuf and Arfah Ab Majid, 2012) or 55 years. Khairulnizam Mat Karim (2005) states that the implementation of this dialogue is seen as a reconciliation method which contributes to the factor of affiliation other than to avoid disintegration especially involving sensitive issues of religion. With issues that are going on, interfaith dialogues are still seen to be vulnerable to become the best platform or method in addressing interfaith conflicts, and to add, the Muslim and Christian religious leader functioning in the context of the dialogue implementation and the relationship among religions at the national level plays no role in solving issues of interfaith relations (Mahathir Mohamad, 2002; Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 2004; Ghazali Basri, 2005 and Hunt, 2009). According to Lowndes and Chapman (2005) and Yasril Yazid (2005) there is a high rationality for religious leader involvement in the inter-faith dialogues at the national level
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