Assessing the Effectiveness of Interfaith Initiatives

A collaboration between The Woolf Institute, Georgetown University Qatar and the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), and with the generous support of the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), Assessing the Effectiveness of Interfaith Initiatives is a three-year ethnographic research project that centres on Delhi, Doha and London.

The focus of the research, therefore, is a comparative assessment of how the now global interfaith movement has emerged and developed across these three diverse case studies. Over the course of three years, researchers conducted extensive fieldwork in Delhi, Doha and London, which involved participant-observation at a range of interfaith events, for the most part in dialogue settings such as conferences, roundtables and workshops. Extensive interviews were conducted with interfaith practitioners, religious leaders, scholars, government officials, policymakers and also laypeople. Although centring on three distinctive case studies, the research carried out encompasses many of the trends and challenges that are identifiable across the broader interfaith movement, and should be of interest to politicians, policymakers, religious and community leaders and scholars or students with an interest in the field of interfaith.

The choice of Delhi, Doha and London reflects the need to consider a wide range of factors that encourage, or in some cases inhibit, interfaith engagement around the world. These include religious, but also historical, social and political determinants. While these factors inform the kinds of interfaith engagement that take place in each context, as our research has identified, there are some common trends across all three sites.

Research Report

The Research Report, 'Beyond Dialogue? Interfaith Engagements in Delhi, Doha & London', was launched on 18 April 2018 and can be downloaded here.

Events

24 April 2018. Woolf-DICID Lecture and Report Launch (Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies)

22 April 2018. Research Seminar (Georgetown University, Qatar)

18 April 2018. Report Launch and Exhibition (Woolf Institute, Cambridge)

17-18 April 2018. Emergent Religious Pluralism(s), an interdisciplinary conference (Woolf Institute, Cambridge)

Talks and Presentations

Fahy, J. 2017. 'The Field of Interfaith in the Middle East'. Paper presented at the Religious Imaginations and Global Transitions conference at the London School of Economics. 

Fahy, J. 2017. 'International Relations and Faiths-based Diplomacy: The Case of Qatar'. Paper presented at the annual Gulf Research Meeting at the University of Cambridge.

Fahy, J. 2017. 'The Globalisation of Values and the Appropriation of Tolerance in the Arabian Peninsula'. Paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) annual conference in Washington DC.

Publications

Books

2019. Bock, Jan-Jonathan, Fahy, John & Everett, Samuel (eds). Emergent Religious Pluralisms. Palgrave

2019. Fahy, John & Bock, Jan-Jonathan (eds.). The Interfaith Movement: Mobilising Religious Diversity in the 21st Century. Routledge

Journal Special Issues

Fahy, John (co-editor with Jeffrey Haynes).  'Interfaith on the World Stage'. Special Issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs. (In preparation)

Research Report

Fahy, John & Bock, Jan-Jonathan. 2018. Beyond Dialogue? Interfaith Engagement in Delhi, Doha and London.

Journal Articles

2018. Fahy, John & Jeffrey Haynes (eds.). 'Interfaith on the World Stage'. Special Issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs. Vol. 16 (3). 

2018. Fahy, John & Jeffrey Haynes. 'Introduction: Interfaith on the World Stage'. In 'Interfaith on the World Stage'. Special Issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Vol. 16 (3): 1-8.

2018. Fahy, John. 'International Relations and Faith-based Diplomacy: The Case of Qatar'.

In 'Interfaith on the World Stage'. Special Issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs. Vol. 16 (3): 76-88.

Fahy, John. 'The Politics of Tolerance in the Arabian Peninsula'. Politics and Religion. (Under review)

Fahy, John. 'International Relations and Faith-based Diplomacy: The Case of Qatar' in 'Interfaith on the World Stage'. Special Issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs. (Forthcoming)

2018. Fahy, John. 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Managing Religious Diversity in Qatar'. The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

2017. Kessler, Ed. 'The Changing Religious Landscape: Implications for Civil Society and Foreign Affairs', Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies. Vol 14, pp.19-32.

Conference Proceedings

Fahy, John. 'The Field of Interfaith in the Middle East'. Conference proceedings from the Religious Imaginations and Global Transitions conference at the London School of Economics. (Forthcoming)

Other Writing

2018. Fahy, John. 'The International Politics of Tolerance in the Persian Gulf', Religion, State & Society.

2018. Fahy, John. 'The Constructive Ambiguity of Vedic Culture in ISKCON, Mayapur'. Journal of Hindu Studies.

2018. Fahy, John & Bock, Jan-Jonathan. 'Beyond Dialogue? Interfaith Engagement in Delhi, Doha and London'

2017. Fahy, John. 'The Politics of Interfaith Love in India'

2016. Kessler, Ed. 'The 'Inter' of Interfaith Initiatives: Reflections on Delhi'

2016. Fahy, John. 'The Seeds of Interfaith'

2016. Fahy, John. 'Interfaith and the Worldwide Krishna Movement'