Muslims with Christians & Jews: Covenants & Coexistence

June 28, 2019 through april 2020

Over the last eighteen years, the International Museum of Muslim Cultures (IMMC) has brought thought-provoking exhibitions and programs of national and international significance to the public. It is, however, the museum’s current undertaking that is perhaps the most imperative due to its timely ability to bring people of different faiths together. IMMC will premiere “Muslims with Christians and Jews: An Exhibition of Covenants and Coexistence,” the most consequential project in the museum’s history. One of the goals of the Exhibit is to help visitors discover what Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have in common and build bridges of understanding. Its subject matter is of crucial importance to the well-being of our nation and the world.

Taking visitors back to a time when people of many faiths lived side by side and worshipped in peace, the exhibition presents historical covenants and treaties that Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) made with Christians and Jews living amongst each other in the city of Medina. The Exhibit introduces the “peace-building leadership of Muhammad, as both a Prophet and Head of State, who prepared the first Constitution in history for his multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual and multi-religious Commonwealth.” The constitution, which may have influenced that of the U.S., will be on display as will other covenants of protection.

The exhibit explores the historical and current relationship between Islam and America, highlighting the positive views of our Founding Fathers on Islam, and what they knew and said about Islam. This theme is further explored through the struggle for freedom in America, featuring the voices of African Americans Muslims, and connecting this struggle to today’s Islamophobia, immigrants rights, Black Lives Matter, and the continuing struggle for civil and human rights in the United States of America.