A meeting of the National Muslim-Christian Initiative, a major dialogue between Muslim and Christian leaders, is an annual meeting gathering together nearly 40 Christian and Muslim senior representatives from around the country to engage issues of concern to both communities, including deliberate discussion of Islamphobia in the US and religious extremist ideology abroad. The meeting includes a public evening program on the intersection of religious freedom and respect for what others hold sacred.
The initiative, begun in 2008 and having last met in 2017, is an integral part of the 30+ years of relationship between Christian communions connected through the National Council of Churches and Muslim organizations.
These meetings, are brought together through the convening efforts of the National Council of Churches and the United States Council of Muslim Organizations, and are held in conjunction with the board meetings of Religions for Peace USA, so as to take advantage of the overlap both of participants and of issues. Christian participants, from the Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox traditions, and Muslim participants, from Arab, South Asian and African American Muslim communities, collectively bring pastoral and theological experience, as well as academic and advocacy experience, to the table.
