The Inter-faith Dialogue Student Association (IDSA) is a recognized student organization at Texas A&M University that was established in 2001. IDSA’s primary goal is promoting and enhancing dialog, understanding, and tolerance among people of diverse religious faith communities on campus and in the community. With this goal in mind, we have been organizing and taking part in different social activities, including picnics, seminars, special cultural performances and reading groups that bring people of diverse backgrounds together. Rather than concentrating on differences, we try to emphasize commonalities that bring us together and far outnumber the differences. We truly hope that by doing so, the activities organized by the Inter-faith Dialogue Student Association would contribute to the world peace, tolerance, and understanding.
IDSA is formed mainly by a group of international graduate students who are committed to this goal.
Our association is sponsored and supported by a larger organization in Austin, called The Institute for Interfaith Dialog, which is a non-profit organization. Their goal is to seek Dialog, Tolerance, and Peace in the world and they have strong relations with cultural organizations worldwide. As our goals parallel, they support us in terms of initiatives and sponsored events and conferences.