Listening to Muslims, before speaking

Respecting Muslims in their personhood and their cultures

Respecting things that are sacred to Muslims, seeking to understand why Muslims value them, including in matters where we disagree

Promoting an accurate understanding of Islam, of Muslims, and of Muslim communities and Muslim-majority cultures

Helping Muslims to have an accurate understanding of the content of the Christian faith

Christian scholars working respectfully with texts of the Islamic tradition, aspiring to understand them "ten times" (cf. Daniel 1:20) as deeply as our Muslim colleagues

Applying tools of social science to understand “lived Islam,” Muslim-majority cultures, and the beliefs and practices of Muslim individuals and communities around the world

Applying both textual/theological scholarship and social science to promote healing and mutual understanding between Muslim and Christian communities

Partnering with Muslims and Islamic institutions in ways that deconstruct stereotypes and promote mutual understanding and peace

Building meaningful personal relationships with Muslim friends and partners

Partnership with Christian churches and institutions and with Christians who work in Muslim-majority contexts

Peacemaking partnerships that also include Jewish friends and Jewish institutions interested in promoting Muslim-Christian-Jewish reconciliation. Though our primary focus is Muslims and Muslim-Christian relations, we also welcome partnership with Jewish communities, and we are committed to opposing anti-Semitism.

Bearing respectful witness to Jesus Christ – not necessarily to the Christian religion, but to the Person of Jesus Christ as the Bible presents him, as well as Christ-centered witness to the wider content of the Christian faith

Ensuring that our witness to Jesus is rooted firmly in the Bible as our final authority

Humility, gentleness, respect, and cultural sensitivity in witness that communicates the love of Jesus through our lives and through how we bear witness to him, not just in the words we speak

Respecting the fact that Muslims also have a faith to which they may also want to bear witness, and actively listening with respect to them as they bear witness to it.

Defending the principles of religious liberty in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." Likewise upholding the following in the 2012 Al-Azhar Declaration of Fundamental Freedoms: "Freedom of religious belief, together with its related right of full citizenship for all built on complete equality of rights and duties, is considered the cornerstone of modern society, and it is guaranteed by the guiding principles of clearcut religious texts and by the unequivocal foundations of constitution and law. For Almighty God says: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from error.' (Q 2:256) And he says: 'Whoever wants, let him believe, and whoever wants, let him disbelieve.' (Q 18:29) This means consequently criminalizing any manifestation of compulsion in religion or persecution or discrimination because of it. Each individual in society should adopt (yaʿtaniqa) whatever ideas they want without violating society’s right to uphold the heavenly belief-systems."

Both giving and receiving practical hospitality with Muslim friends must be central to how we build relationships with these friends.

Hospitality also means making space for what our Muslim friends hold as sacred, even where we may not agree.

Though much of our work is with leaders and scholars, we remember that Jesus spent most of his time with working-class people and the poor, and Dudley Woodberry’s legacy includes a continuing concern for the poor.

We continue – at small scale – the legacy humanitarian projects of the Doulos Community in Mauritania, and we are open, as the Lord leads, to other humanitarian projects that show love to people who are poor, traumatized, oppressed, or suffering.