“A Model for Peacemaking: In the Footprints of Francis & the Sultan”


Date posted: August 2, 2013

The Dialogue Institute of the Southwest co-sponsored a video production called “In the Footprints of Francis and the Sultan: A Model for Peacemaking”, which aims to advance interfaith dialogue and understanding between Christians and Muslims.

This film explores about a little-known peace initiative in the Middle East involving Francis of Assisi and Malek al-Kamil in 1219. In the summer of that year, Francis took it upon himself to cross battle lines and reach out to the enemy. These countercultural efforts of Francis, a simple friar, and Malek al-Kamil, the leader of the Muslim forces of the Levant, made them most unusual in their time. This video uses the story of their meeting to help us negotiate our difficult interfaith encounters and other misunderstanding and hostility between peoples.

The film was produced by Hartfilms in Los Angeles for Franciscan Media in Cincinnati. Major support for the research was provided by the Dialogue Institute of the Southwest and the Catholic Communications Campaign.

A segment of the video can be watched here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWly_lBJTA

Source: Dialogue Institute of the Southwest

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Mr. Gulen is trying to interpret the broad humanistic principles of the Qur’an for the modern world

Mr. Gulen reminds me of other important figures in the 20th and now early 21st century thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. who also translate their religious traditions into an idiom that made sense to people who wanted to live peacefully and in harmony with their neighbors and their wider community.

‘Young Turks’ Of Bridge Building

Cross-cultural program between Jewish and Turkish Muslim teens flourishes in south Brooklyn as Israel, Turkey eye calm. The Young Peace Builders, which was launched three years ago by the Kings Bay Y, a Jewish community center, and the Amity School, a private K-12 school that admits students from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, serves a primarily Turkish-Muslim student body.

Ramadan Tent brings faiths together in Virginia

American Turkish Friendship Association (ATFA) held its annual Ramadan Tent on July 17-19 this year. The tent stayed up in the parking lot of Unity of Fairfax Church for 3 consecutive days and hosted approximately around 750 people each evening over Iftar Dinner. Asm. Kenneth Plum appreciates ATFA’s efforts to bring together people from different faiths and cultures.

Fethullah Gülen’s lawyers fear attacks on his life amid calls for return to Turkey

“We’re very concerned about his safety,” said Reid Weingarten, a member of Gülen’s legal team, at a press conference on Friday in Washington DC. Weingartern repeated Gülen’s denials that he was involved in the attempted coup attempt and suggested that the Turkish government’s evidence will fall far short of American legal standards. “For Mr Gülen to be involved, he would have to be acting inconsistent with everything he’s done his entire adult life,” he said.

Fethullah Gülen: An Islamic sign of hope for an inclusive Europe

Thus Gülen and the initiatives inspired by his teaching challenge the tendency found among some Muslims groups to separatist withdrawal from the wider non-Muslim society. By contrast, they offer a basis for Muslim engagement with the wider society based upon a confident and richly textured Islamic vision.

Turkish businesswomen hold panel at the UN on female empowerment

The İstanbul-based Global Businesswoman Association (DünyaDer) held a panel on women’s economic empowerment on Tuesday at the UN in New York in cooperation with the Women’s Platform of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) to discuss ways how to strengthen the socioeconomic position of women in the society.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Would Gülen want to return to Turkey?

Plot against Gülen movement in tatters as suspects confess to false testimony

Gülen’s Statement of Condemnation for Terrorist Attack Against the Coptic Christian Community in Egypt

Prominent theologian says Turkey in crisis with international community

Fethullah Gülen’s Lawyers: Gülen Movement Has No Link With Zarrab Case In US

Whistleblower Fuat Avni: Gov’t to plant weapons in Hizmet buildings to declare it terrorist group

Fethullah Gülen: Turkey coup may have been ‘staged’ by Erdoğan regime

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News