INTERVIEW BY Martha Thomas   PORTRAIT BY André Chung

The Daughters of Abraham began in Boston soon after September 11, 2001. A group of women from different religious backgrounds had gathered for interfaith worship and to explore ways to foster cultural understanding. They came up with the idea of a book club to share works about Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The notion took hold and grew. Currently about 25 Daughters of Abraham groups meet throughout the U.S. and Canada. Ruth Smith, a retired nurse educator, heard of the group and formed a local chapter in 2010. About a dozen women meet each month at Vantage House in Columbia, where Smith lives, to discuss books. I spoke with her on September 11, the 13th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

QHow did you learn about the Daughters of Abraham?

I was interested in Islam for a long time because I lived in Pakistan from 1968 to 1970. When 9/11 happened, I wanted to do something that said all Muslims are not terrorists. How can we promote an understanding of the peace aspect of what Islam is? I was thinking of interfaith groups, I hadn’t thought of a book club. Somebody I knew, a Muslim woman, mentioned Daughters of Abraham. That fit what I wanted to do – create a small group of different faiths.

QHow does it work?

It’s been pretty much 12-13 people since it started in 2010. Right now we have about half Christian and three Muslims and three Jewish women. We’d like to have the group more equally represented, however. We’d like to keep a balance.

We read a different book every month; we make a point that one month the Jewish people choose it, the next month the Muslims do, and so on.

QCan you tell us about some of the books you have read?

We have a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. We’ve had a few novels about the immigrant experience. One of the first books the Muslims brought is “The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf,” about a family that came from Syria and how they tried to keep up with their Islam – how they adjusted to a new culture. One thing that impressed me was the feelings they had about Americans. Some were positive and some were like, why do they do this? One thing was, we have dogs in the house and the Muslims think that’s filthy.

QDoes fiction work better than nonfiction?

I think so. We’ve found that people are more likely to read novels. Everyone loves a good novel. One of the Jewish books was about Masada, about how women lived-“The Dovekeepers” by Alice Hoffman. I’ve read some great books that I wouldn’t have paid any attention to otherwise.

QAnd what about a book with insight into Christian culture?

We’re reading “Someone” right now, by Alice McDermott. The characters are of an Irish catholic background. I read a review that said this is about the main character’s spiritual journey.

QCan you think of a great discussion, when the book club really fulfilled its promise by sharing different points of view?

For our December (2013) meeting, we read “Zealot” by Reza Aslan. There was discussion about Aslan’s doubting the virgin birth, and that led to a discussion of how many stories in the Bible are also told or referred to in the Quran. Sometimes the stories are similar, sometimes there are different interpretations. Mary (Maryam), highly respected by Muslims, is the only female with an entire book of the Quran named for her. That led us to talking about other similarities and differences in the Quran and the Bible – stories about Jesus, Jonah, Hagar and Sarah, Abraham and many others.

I notice we are very careful not to get into heated discussions. We don’t want to offend each other, so we tend to err on the side of not talking about things controversial. In the national group guidelines they make a point to say that we don’t talk about politics. Some of us wonder if in this day and age we can even separate politics and religion.

QHow has your faith and the way you see others’ faith evolved as you’ve grown older and wiser?

I grew up in a very conservative protestant church in western Pennsylvania. When I worked as a nurse educator in Pakistan, I began to let go of the idea that my job was to persuade others to convert to Christianity. I also learned more about the religion of Islam. Over the years, I have come to believe that all people of faith are meant to work toward a more loving and compassionate world. In my little corner of the world, I was helping to educate disadvantaged Pakistani girls for a career in nursing.

QWas there a turning point for you in terms of understanding how people of different faiths can be understanding of one another?

I don’t think there was one turning point, I read a lot, took classes and attended a church (Kittamaqundi Community) where we were encouraged to “live with the questions” and at the same time reach out to people beyond our little circle. As for many people, 9/11 motivated me to be more active in reaching out to people of other faiths.

QHow has the Daughters of Abraham book group reinforced this?

We have found that what we have in common in terms of feelings for society, for the poor and marginalized people is more important than the differences in how we worship. What is often found in Daughters of Abraham is, if there are strong disagreements, it’s usually among people within the same religion.

Forming friendships – getting to know other women and their families – has helped me to see how much I can learn about faith from people whose backgrounds are different from mine. It’s amazing. This is the first book club I’ve ever been in. It’s exciting to me that I can learn from other people things I’d never even thought about.*