And Also On You

I like the theme of Zachary Karabell's book, Peace Be Upon You. The book is apparently about times of religious harmony. We spend so much time learning about clashes of religions -- crusades and jihads -- that it's nice to see a work that focuses on times when the different faiths got along. It could also provide useful hints at a blueprint for the future. Here's what Amazon says:

"Readers visit, for instance, ninth-century Baghdad, where a Muslim caliph invited Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist theologians to compare beliefs...and, still later, Karabell turns to mid-twentieth-century Beirut, where disparate religions hammered out a national pact for sharing governance. Karabell concedes that some regimes have pursued ecumenical harmony merely to secure economic and political advantage, but he insists that such harmony actually reflects peace-fostering doctrines central to all of the Abrahamic faiths."[emphasis mine]

Maybe Karabell has better examples, but National Pact-era Beirut is a troublesome poster city for religious harmony. The National Pact gave the Maronite Christians all of the important government positions, leaving the other confessional groups minor positions of influence. There is a difference between peace imposed by one group on a multi-religious landscape through overwhelming force, and peace caused by mutual tolerance between many faiths.