RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM: A THREAT TO INTERFAITH DIALOGUE

In recent days extremism has posed a serious threat in Kenya. This jeopardizes not only our social and economic life but also our very existence. Despite much effort in the fight against terrorism, terrorist incidents continue to rise, particularly among the Muslim communities. There are cases reported of terrorism recruitment in the prevalent Muslim areas like Pumwani-Nairobi Lamu, Mombasa, North Eastern among other counties. In many cases the recruitment are found among the poor slum dwellers where Muslims are majority. These include all majengos in Kenya. This has highly affected interfaith dialogue efforts. This paper aim at determining challenges facing inter faith dialogue; establish the impact of religious extremism to interfaith dialogue; find out the strategies to be implemented to promote interfaith dialogue. The paper will help both the religious and political leaders to promote cohesion. This is in line with Murrays, (1976) findings which noted that discussion with the other religion is actually essential to survival, necessary for the sake of peace in the world. The world not getting any smaller: the migration of peoples, new methods of communication, and the vast expanse of knowledge about others are increasing rather than diminishing. The study will only focus on two religions; Islam and Christianity. The paper is divided into four subsections; the introduction of the paper; review of some related literature; the journey in interfaith dialogue; the challenges of interfaith dialogue, the remedies to the challenges facing interfaith dialogue and the impacts of interfaith dialogue; summary; findings; conclusions and make recommendations.