After two weeks of Arab hospitality, introductions into Islamic culture, and warm receptions at Muslim, Christian, and Hindu places of worship, our group was forced out of Oman on June 6, 2007, a day early, as tropical storm Gonu hit the Arabian Peninsula. This was an appropriate ending to a trip that taught us to expect the unexpected.

For me, the journey began at the end of the spring semester of my senior year when I learned of a newly organized PTS seminar on Christian-Muslim relations in the Sultanate of Oman. Only two days after graduating from Princeton Seminary, I set off for the capital city of Muscat along with five other PTS students: Sarah Johnson, Marcus Branch, LeTicia Williams-Preacely, Adam Hearlson, and Lydia Casey. We were met there by the Reverend Michael Bos, director of the Reformed Church of America’s Al-Amana Center (www.alamanacentre.org), and PTS professor Richard Young joined us a few days later.

Oman is a country of three million people and is relatively wealthy because of its oil resources. It is ruled by Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who came to power in 1970 and is well loved by Omanis because of his efforts to modernize the country. The majority of Omanis practice Ibadi Islam, a sect that is distinct from both the Sunni and the Shia traditions.

The religion and culture that we encountered in Oman has been shaped by the country’s geographical position on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. With the Sunni stronghold of Saudi Arabia to its west and Shia Iran just across the gulf to its north, Oman serves as both a geographical and theological bridge between these two Muslim sects. In fact, although the majority of Muslims in Oman are Ibadi, none of the Omanis we met made a firm distinction between Ibadis, Sunnis, and Shias. We learned that it is common for Ibadis and Sunnis to pray together in the same mosques.

During the trip, I also began to see Oman as a potential bridge between the Islamic world and the West because it raises a voice of moderation against Islamic extremism. When I refer to Oman as an environment of “moderate” Islam, I do not mean it is a Muslim country that has become westernized. Although Oman has achieved much technological and economic development and has embraced aspects of Western culture—including Starbucks and McDonald’s—it remains a highly religious country. The vast majority of its citizens are Muslim, with Christians and Hindus among the immigrant and guest-worker populations. Oman has allowed Islamic faith and culture to influence life in both the private and public spheres. This is apparent from the number of men and women who wear traditional Omani attire and from the calls to prayer that echo across Omani cities five times daily.

The Omanis we met were welcoming, and interested in our lives as Americans, and they made a point to condemn terrorism. They also expressed concern that the Western world has misunderstood the character of Islam. Visiting a country of such openness and moderation reminded me of the need to listen more closely to Muslims around the world whose sincere faith leads them to denounce religious extremism.

Oman’s openness to the outside world emerged, in large part, from its centuries of engagement in overseas trade with neighbors to the east. Indian Muslims, Christians, and Hindus have all made Oman their home, and after living there for generations, many have become Omani citizens. Oman’s continuing contact with India and its trade relationship with countries throughout Asia and Africa have made it accepting of religious diversity and increasingly open to Muslim-Christian dialogue.

This openness is one reason why the Al-Amana Center for interfaith dialogue has been able to thrive in Muscat. It also makes Oman an ideal place for Americans to learn more about Islam, and this is why Princeton Seminary developed a seminar in Oman on Muslim-Christian relations. A family foundation in New Jersey gave the funds to subsidize the Oman seminar. My classmates and I focused on three major areas of study: Islam, the history of Muslim-Christian relations, and theology of religions. All are areas that one must consider when engaging in Muslim-Christian dialogue, and this became apparent in our class sessions with Michael Bos and in lectures given by Muslims and Christians living around Muscat. We learned to recognize the diversity within the Muslim community and to examine the relationship between the religion of Islam and Islamic culture. We also found that there is a limit to the knowledge one can acquire from books or holy texts. A deeper understanding of Islam comes through personal interaction with Muslims.

One memorable experience demonstrated the value of such interaction. I had the opportunity, along with three other PTS women, to visit with female students at the Institute for Sharia Science, a government-sponsored theological institution. Graduates from the institute—the male graduates, at least—would take positions as imams in mosques or jurists in the Omani court system. We were surprised to learn that more than half of the student population was female.

The women in our group arrived at the institute expecting to meet with a few of these students, but we were caught off guard as our hosts ushered us into an auditorium of two hundred women. We were directed to sit on a stage behind a table with a microphone, as if we were participants in a panel discussion. We had not anticipated being the center of attention and were nearly lost for words as our translator directed us to pose questions to the “audience.” As we overcame our shock, however, we realized that dialogue is about the willingness to step out of our comfort zones to connect with people of other faiths.

We began asking questions about their lives as women and students in Oman: What were their goals after graduation? Would any of them lead prayer services for women? What sort of challenges do they face in Omani society? What were their impressions of women in America? As the women took turns answering, they asked us similar questions. We learned that it was not forbidden by Islamic law for women to lead other females in prayer. We also took note of the murmur that went through the crowd as one member of the PTS group said that she planned to be a pastor and to lead congregations in worship. The women seemed impressed that we were dressed modestly compared to the Western women they saw on television. For many of them, we may have been the first American women they had met. When the session was over, the students swarmed the stage, shaking our hands, giving us email addresses, and inviting us to visit their homes. Unfortunately, our schedule did not permit us to take them up on their offers of hospitality.

We did visit a few other homes, in a mixed-gender setting. Everywhere we went we were served Arabic coffee and dates. One meal included chicken and the largest pot of rice I’ve ever seen (the women have to be prepared to cook for very large family gatherings). Oman is actually a rice culture, as opposed to Arab countries outside the Gulf region where pita bread is more typical. The house was a beautiful modern stone house built on to the original mud brick structure that had been in the family for generations. It included an open-air courtyard in the center where the wife served us coffee and dates. We had eaten in another room of the house, where the husband sat down to eat with us and the wife served the food but did not stay. This seems to be a generational difference that is changing in Oman; we also visited the home of this couple’s daughter and her husband, and the daughter stayed with us the entire time and participated fully in the conversation, wearing a colorful hijab and clothing, as opposed to the traditional black dress.

Christian-Muslim dialogue involves give-and-take from both sides. It requires both parties’ genuine interest in learning from the other and openness to new experiences. While our visit with the women at the institute was uncomfortable at first, I appreciated that the students wanted to hear about our lives and beliefs directly from us rather than assuming that they already knew about American society or Christianity. Our engagement with these women and with others in Oman was just the beginning of what should prove to be an ongoing, rewarding relationship between PTS students and Omani Muslims. As for us, we will be able to share our experiences in Oman with our own congregations and to emphasize the importance of engaging with Muslims in our own communities in the United States.

Deanna Ferree Womack (M.Div., 2007; Th.M., 2008) is in Zahle, Lebanon, teaching religious education classes and serving as a chaplain with the Secondary Evangelical School administered by the National Evangelical (Presbyterian) Synod of Lebanon and Syria.

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