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INTERFAITH scholar Mahmoud Ayoub has spent much of his life searching, looking for that elusive common ground between the world's religions, but during this time of the year, the focus of the quest narrows a bit.
His quest at Christmas is to seek out signs of Jesus Christ, and he has been looking in shopping malls bedecked for the season, and even in people's homes.
The Lebanese-born academic says: 'I look for him in all the department stores, and he is not there. He is not in our homes either.'
He concludes: 'I think we must look in our hearts.'
The professor of Christian-Muslim relations at Hartford Seminary in the United States is used to such ambiguity and indeterminate outcomes. They come with the religious territory in these days of misunderstandings and sometimes hostility between dogmas.
It is one reason why improving relations between religions is so important to him. Indeed, the Muslim holder of American, Canadian and Lebanese passports describes his own life as a journey in 'interfaith dialogue'.
It is what brought him to Singapore at the invitation of the Muis Academy to discuss that topic and to improve contemporary understanding of the Quran.
Professor Ayoub, 72, who lost his sight in infancy, says that God is found in the fascinating diversity of faiths, as his own life testifies.
Born to a poor Muslim family in South Lebanon, he converted to Christianity in a mission school there. 'I was a Muslim at home, and a Christian in school.'
As a young man, he returned to Islam. 'I no longer believed in absolutism. All religions are ways to the truth. I returned to my roots in Islam.'
His sojourn through Christianity taught him a lot, and he feels he is one of the few Muslims able to discuss Islam in a way Christians can understand and relate to.
He is also a vocal opponent to the building of the controversial mosque near Ground Zero in New York.
Those in favour of the project say it will be a powerful symbol of harmony between Muslims and Christians in the United States.
But Prof Ayoub counters that it is a 'dramatic gesture' to portray Islam as a religion of peace after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Such an overblown overture could be politicised and backfire, he fears.
He feels interfaith dialogue has become dominated by apologetics and polemics in the post 9/11 world.
'I believe the idea to build a community centre near Ground Zero is an apologetic gesture to show that Islam is a religion of peace.
'It generated a lot of polemics, including turning 9/11 into a Quran-burning threat,' he says.
The futuristic Islamic complex being planned for Park Place, two blocks from Ground Zero, will devote most of its space to secular pursuits. There will be a sports centre, culinary school, art studios, playground and auditorium for cultural events. The Muslim prayer space will be spread over two floors in the basement.
Prof Ayoub knows Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf, 62, the Manhattan religious leader who proposed the centre, as a thoughtful man who grew up in Malaysia.
But Prof Ayoub insists: 'I prefer not to try to clean our image in public and so dramatically. I will not let a few Muslim lunatics define me and my American and world Muslim community.
'The Ground Zero centre is unnecessary. It proves nothing.'
He takes the same approach with Jewish friends. 'I don't want to memorialise the Holocaust. We cannot live continuously in the past. We have to move on.'
He prefers the memories of 9/11 to die naturally, and advocates dialogue instead.
This, he says, holds real promise as Islam and Christianity, along with Judaism, are faiths with much in common, including the shared beliefs that God is the creator, the world has a purpose and each man will give an account of his life.
'So, there is fairly good space for dialogue, if we want,' he says.
Prof Ayoub points to various levels of dialogue that can connect people of different faiths. There is the 'dialogue of life', where communities work on moral issues and social justice - or sometimes on practical areas.
He cites the example of a mosque and synagogue in Toronto that share a carpark. Jews use it on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, while Muslims fill the lots at noon on Fridays. 'This eventually led to dialogue, and sharing of food and culture.'
Then, there is the 'dialogue of history'. As Islam is a close cousin of the other two Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Judaism, these are historical elements on which deeper dialogue can be built.
Then, there is the 'dialogue of theology' - the most difficult, he believes. 'Because people have different theological orientations, they try to avoid this dialogue,' he says. 'But we can start with humility to learn rather than score points.'
Persevering with dialogue will bear fruit eventually, he says. Devotees will get to the root of issues dividing religious groups. And, just as important, deep dialogue enriches faith.
'My faith as a Muslim is deepened as we share our faith with one another,' he says. 'If we study the major religions of the world carefully, we see God working through the diversity of faiths.
'If we look at religions complementing and completing each other without sacrificing the individuality of each religion, we can be enriched in our own faith.'
There are many examples from history, he says, pointing to the Catholic mystic Louis Massignon, who died in 1962. The French scholar studied Islam and eventually wanted to become a Roman Catholic priest. Because he delved into Islam, he became a more committed Christian.
Still, interfaith dialogue does not equate to a merging of faiths. The lines are distinct to him.
'I will not take communion, for that affirms the position of Christianity,' he says. 'But I can learn to appreciate the depth and spiritual richness of communion or how Christ washed the feet of his disciples.'
Aside from prizing common ground, there is also much to learn from the differences between religions.
'Plurality means that each religion is a spiritual identity of its own. I want to appreciate Christianity as Christianity,' he says.
A frequent traveller, Prof Ayoub notices that chatty taxi drivers everywhere like to ask, once they discover he is a professor of religion: 'Aren't all religions the same?'
He quips: 'Then, I give an unpaid lecture: Religions are not the same.'
While dialogue will build bridges, a necessary caveat is that it must not be used for missionary activities. 'We must dialogue on the basis of equality,' he stresses.
For example, Christians should not engage Muslims in dialogue with this kind of proselytising intent: 'I feel sorry for Muslims. How should I bring them to God?'
Instead, they ought to become partners in dialogue who honestly seek truth together.
'I do not dialogue to necessarily win you over to my faith, but to know you better, and for you to know me better, and together share God's earth with respect and dignity,' he says.
In a lyrical turn of phrase, Prof Ayoub, who loves being a scholar of religion as the job encompasses literature, philosophy, history and mythology, adds: 'We must respect the quest for meaning, conscious of the religions of the world as a beautiful garden of many trees and flowers that together manifest the truth.'
In his own life, too, he keeps personal dialogues going.
'I plan to spend Christmas and the New Year in Montreal with my two children and their mother, my former wife whom I love and respect as a friend and colleague,' he says.
His first wife is an Anglo-Canadian professor of Islamic studies. He is now remarried to Dasmalina, 45, an Indonesian housewife.
He says fondly of her: 'Lina was a very successful office manager in Indonesia. She now manages my life. We met at an interfaith conference in Jakarta and have been married six years. She is so kind to my children.'
Then, hitting an interfaith note again, he says: 'Christmas is a happy occasion for everybody, only if we are not fanatical each in his or her own tradition.'
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