Prof. Azumah says, “…we cannot afford to look meaningfully into the future without full knowledge of the past. … when one party in the dialogue assumes self-righteous stance and make absolute claims for themselves… Persons entering interreligious, interideological dialogue must be at least minimally self-critical of both themselves and their own religious or ideological traditions. A lack of such self-criticism implies that one’s own tradition already has all the correct answers. Such an attitude makes dialogue primarily not only unnecessary, but impossible, since we enter into dialogue primarily so we can learn —- which obviously is impossible if our tradition has never made a misstep, if it has all the answers…” (Azumha, J. A. The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa, NY, One World, 218, p 179).
