Islamists were in heavy attendance at the conference titled “Eastern Christians in Light of the Arab Spring,” which was held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Sept. 27-29 and attended by Al-Monitor. Islamists of various stripes came from several countries of the Arab East, including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq. The attendees were looking forward to a genuine discussion between them and their Christian compatriots. At first, the Islamists kept silent, listening and observing. But the sensitivity of the issues that were raised forced them to break their silence.

With few words — mostly as an answer or a reaction — the Islamists seemed generally more rigid and more attached to their ideas than usual. But the interaction between the two sides was remarkable and revealed the barriers to dialogue. This is illustrated in the following examples:

One session’s chairman happened to be an Islamist deputy from one of the countries in the region. As all Islamists usually do, he started the session by reciting the Quranic Bismallah verse: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.” Then he greeted the audience, “Peace [salam] be upon Muhammad and upon his family and companions and his followers.”

For Islamists, the “salam” greeting is a formality, part of their discourse and religious thought. But it marked an opportunity for one lay participant to open a dialogue with them. The layperson surprised the Islamist chairman by saying, “It seems that the theme of our conference and our dialogue as a whole was encapsulated by the chairman’s bestowing salam [peace] on ‘Muhammad, his family, companions and followers.’ Therefore, those who don’t follow Muhammad and don’t submit to him, what does he bestow on them other than salam? Is he bestowing 'war' on them?” It should be noted that the word salam in Arabic has two meanings: it is a greeting, and it also means the opposite of war.