The monotheistic bases of both faiths, the common diets and lifestyles, were emphasised. In fact, in something that qualifies for Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Prophet Mohammed initially had urged people to pray facing Jerusalem. It is only later things altered dramatically. Beyond repair, some would say. Unlike war, peace has a bad habit of not breaking out in a hurry, especially as there are so many who then have a stake in keeping things messy.

It was an hour, perhaps longer, than the seven days it may have taken to create the world, as it held so many possibilities. It was about the most ‘secular’ (that is non-religious) things, like avoiding attacking prayer homes, the rights of Arabs to go back to where they once belonged, but it carried the most deep and divine sermon that can ever be given — on the right of human beings to live. The right not to be attacked while waiting for a bus, or the right to not have to give birth in camps and to not see a whole generation knowing only tents for roofs.

It was a short meeting between people separated by different sizes and shapes of headgear — differences, though, that were shaping thousands of lives, not just hairstyles. And it didn’t get particularly written about either. If anything, it may even be remembered by hardliners on both sides, attacking its attendees for ‘compromise’ or talking to untouchables. But it was the most spiritual thing I sat through in a long time, and which saw the ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ merge very comfortably — except that the message may just be too ‘peaceful’ to get carried, far too simple to be understood, let alone followed.