Almost two years ago, the National Council of Churches in Australia and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils took a historic decision. They established the Christian/Muslim Liaison Group, comprising equal numbers of leaders representing each organisation.

The Liaison Group has five objectives:

• To address any problems in relationships between the two faith communities in Australia. 
• To discover the substantial area of common ground between us. 
• To deepen mutual understanding and trust. 
• To demonstrate, to our own people and to Australia generally, that harmonious interfaith relations are possible. 
• To identify opportunities for increased cooperation.

Already the Liaison Group has become conscious of how much common ground there is between our two faith communities.

We share:

• Our humanity and all that implies in terms of the search for meaning and value, reconciliation and community.
• A religious world view -- ie. the conviction that that human existence cannot be understood without reference to a transcendent reality that claims our lives, our societies and our world.
• A faith history grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures, read in the light of the Christian Scriptures or the Holy Koran, and focussed in the life and teachings of an authoritative person.
• A monotheism that tends to be uncomfortable with pluralism, has difficulty dealing with dissent and is driven by its own internal logic to seek converts.
• A history of conflict -- with other religious world views generally and with each other in particular!
• A place in multicultural, pluralistic Australia, in which religion in all its manifestations is increasingly regarded with scepticism, sometimes with ridicule and even with outright hostility.

But our two faith communities also tend to misunderstand each other, for many reasons.

Among them:

• We have different approaches to our sacred writings and the way in which they are authoritative for us today.
• We have been shaped by different histories.
• Our people bear in their memories the scars that Christians and Muslims have inflicted on each other in times and places far from here.
• Clashes and tensions in other countries inevitably impinge on perceptions here in Australia.
• We both tend to see our own faith community in terms of what it aspires to be at its best, while remembering the other in terms of what it has sometimes been at its worst.

Whenever the human community is under pressure, it can so easily fracture along the ancient fault lines of ethnicity and religion. With only one crisis -- like the tragedy in the USA that has overwhelmed us all in the past few days -- people are tempted to forget what we share and relapse into the suspicion, fear, recrimination and abuse of centuries past.

If anyone had doubted the need for closer contact between Australia's Christians and Muslims, the events of recent weeks, and especially of the past three days, must surely have underlined its importance -- for us, yes, but through us for Australia as a whole.

Friends, on behalf of the Christians here present I want to say that we are shocked and saddened by the hostility that is being expressed towards the Muslim community in these days. We want to do whatever we can to stand with you, to reject the voices of hate, to challenge people who denigrate your faith, and to resist those who are trying to tear us apart from one another.

To all I say, let us be grateful for the circle of understanding, trust and friendship that has been growing among us. And let us go forth resolved to do everything we possibly can to strengthen and enlarge that circle. Our two faith communities need it. Australia needs it too.

For more information contact: NCCA General Secretary - Rev. John Henderson- Phone: +61 2 9299 2215 or Fax: +61 2 9262 4514