April 13th, 2004 - The Salam: Peace and Justice Institute represented by Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer and the Fuller Theological Seminary represented by Dr. David Augsburger formed a Conflict Transformation Project Steering Committee to lead a dialogue between the Muslims and Christians within the United States. Salam: Peace and Justice Institute represents a consortium of organizations that includes: The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences; the Islamic Society of North America (www.isna.net); the Farsi Islamic Peace Chair with Dr. Said Abdul Aziz at American University; and Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute, American University, as organizations serving the Muslim communities in the United States.

The Conflict Transformation Project is part of a one million dollar Department of Justice grant to the Fuller Theological Seminary to partner with the Muslim community to dialogue in a series of conferences and design peacemaking strategies from the standpoint of the traditions of each religion and will lead to published materials with constructive alternatives for peacemaking. Fuller Theological Seminary obtained the grant in the Spring of 2003 with the assistance of Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia to address the need for conflict transformation that arose after the tragedy of September 11th.