Path to Peace

The war on terror took a backseat to the economy in this election. It remains one of the new administrations more mystifying challenges. Military, diplomatic, political and even armchair experts can all agree that the most challenging aspect of the conflict is identifying the enemy. Unlike any other major conflict in modern history, this war is not defined by a division of territorial lines. Nor is it even a division of religions that are spread all over the world.

As Muslims kill Muslims in Iraq, Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, it is defined every day as a conflict clouded by religious factions and differing beliefs in theocracy. For Mark Siljander, former congressman and deputy U.S./U.N. ambassador, it is a conflict crying for clarity and understanding both among Muslim-dominated nations and Christians here at home.

Drawing on his heavily endorsed book, A Deadly Misunderstanding, Siljander  explains the path to peace in this conflict begins with a clarity and awareness of the remarkable common threads of faith between Islam and Christianity—a fact that, as he points  out, has been the basis for a number of specific and astonishing, yet underreported, examples of successful foreign diplomacy.

Scott Drake and Mark Siljander