Though the Island’s religious leaders have often engaged in interfaith dialogue before and collaborated to lead interfaith services, it’s rare that Islanders and visitors get to hear the perspective of a Muslim leader. On Wednesday, August 29, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and leader of the Cordoba Initiative in New York city, will speak with Rabbi Caryn Broitman before an audience at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven.

The two religious leaders will converse about topics ranging from faith and political issues, to what it means to be a minority in the United States, and to the relations between Jews and Muslims in the U.S. and abroad.

“We are going to have a good conversation about the myths which exist within our faith communities,” Imam Feisal said. The Palestinian Israeli conflict has “harmed relations between Jews and Muslims,” he said, “so learning to converse productively about the issue is essential to repairing those bonds.”

Iman Feisal is the author of Moving the Mountain, published earlier this year. In his book he examines the state of the Muslim community in the United States. He is also chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, which according to its mission statement is “a multi-national, multi-faith organization dedicated to improving understanding and building trust among people of all cultures and religions.” Cordoba Initiative gets its name from the city in southern Spain where Muslims, Jews and Catholics lived harmoniously during the 10th and 11th centuries.

“He is an inspiring religious leader,” Rabbi Broitman said of the Imam. “In America, there have been times and places that Muslims have had a lot of prejudice,” she continued, adding that interfaith dialogue is a way “to break through that and learn about Islam.”

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. — unspecified

Iman Feisal speaks often on the topic of the American Muslim, and has recently begun researching the similarities between the status of immigrant Muslims today and immigrant Jews of the 20th century. Mosques in this country tend to be “very culture-centric, ethnocentric,” he said.

The original American synagogue had specific ethnic identities, but now most synagogues identify as reform, conservative or orthodox, and few limit their membership to a certain ethnic group, he said. The same thing is happening with Muslims as an American Muslim identity begins to evolve, he added.

“Their grandchildren are identifying as Americans and less as their home cultures.”

In studying the history of the American Jewish faith community and the Catholic faith, he has come to realize “that what is happening to my community is not something unique. It’s less a religious phenomenon, and more of a social phenomenon.”

Iman Feisal has been at the forefront of the effort to dispel prejudices regarding Islam in the United States, especially following the September 11 attacks in New York city, and to encourage interfaith dialogue between influential religious groups. In 2010, he was drawn into public controversy regarding the Islamic community center he was involved in trying to build near Ground Zero. Though the building was neither a mosque nor located at Ground Zero, many spoke out against its construction, and he even received death threats from anti-Muslim groups. Though he is no longer involved with the site, his vision to create an Islamic community center with similar programming as the 92nd Street Y, a Jewish community center on the upper east side of Manhattan, is still alive, he said.

“I am looking for another location. Hopefully in the next six months or a year we will be able to find a location, and shift the discourse away from what happened a couple of years ago to something deemed more positive.”

He hopes community members of all faiths (or lack thereof) attend the dialogue on Wednesday.

“The most important thing is that all faith traditions believe in the golden rule,” he said. “They believe in the same principles of righteousness and ethics... the fundamental principles of all faith communities are identical.”

The interfaith dialogue between Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Rabbi Caryn Broitman begins at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 29, at the Hebrew Center, 130 Center street, Vineyard Haven. For more information, call 508-693-0745.