The one-hour documentary, produced by EthicsDaily.com , includes several Oklahomans: Orhan Osman, executive director of Institute of Interfaith Dialog in Oklahoma City; the Rev. Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists; T Thomas, executive director of the Cooperative Baptist Fel- lowship of Oklahoma and executive director of His Nets; Imad Enchassi, imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City; Charles Kimball, director of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma; and the Rev. Mitch Randall, pastor of NorthHaven Church in Norman. 

Prescott, of Norman, said he was approached about participating in thedocumentary when he attended a January 2009 gathering of Muslims andBaptists at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Mass., just outside Boston. He said he met the film’s producer, Robert Parham, at the gathering, which was said to be the first national dialogue between the two Abrahamic faith traditions.

Prescott said Parham is executive director of EthicsDaily.com, a division of the Baptist Center for Ethics, a nonprofit Parham founded in 1991 that is based in Nashville,Tenn. Prescott said he told Parham about the interfaith partnershipsthat had developed between some Baptists and Muslims in Oklahoma Cityafter the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He said he liked that thedocumentary presented an opportunity to show how Baptists and Muslimswork together on an international scale as well as locally.

Prescott said the documentary’s title fits in with the participants’ main goal.

"We have extremists in both our faiths,” Prescott said. "We’re just trying to find some common ground to promote peace.”

Osman, an Oklahoma City Muslim, said that in the documentary he discussed his mission trip to Kenyawith a group of Oklahoma Baptists from Randall’s NorthHaven Church andHis Nets, Thomas’ Norman nonprofit Christian ministry that works tocombat malaria in sub-Sa-haran Africa.

"I was so proud to be a part of that,” Osman said of the 2008 trip.

Osman said he hopes the documentary helps spread the message thatpeople of different faiths can work together for the common good ofhelping others.

"We’re working together to try to get people to see we have morecommonalities than differences,” he said. "We want to help people tounderstand both faiths and make new friendships.”

Prescott said recent acts of terrorism have made it more critical forpeople to understand that all Muslims are not radical extremists. Hesaid he hopes the documentary will shed light on the problems thatresult when people stereotype others because of their faith.

"I really do think that ... we need to do all we can to convey thatindividual extremists are just that — individual extremists,” Prescottsaid.

In addition to the Oklahomans, the documentary covers stories in Washington, D.C., where the Islamic Society of North America maintains an interfaith office; the Texas-Louisianaborder, where a Baptist pastor and Muslim businesswoman have pooledresources for hurricane relief and other community needs; and Columbia, Tenn., where the Islamic center was firebombed in February 2008 by white supremacists.

An EthicsDaily.com news release said "Different Books, Common Word” airs on ABC-TV stations pursuant to an agreement between the Interfaith Broadcasting Commissionand ABC Television. The documentary is part of a "Vision and Values”series of public-interest and religious programs that the broadcastingcommission supplies to ABC, the news release said. ABC, in turn, clearsthe programs for broadcast and makes them available to any of itsaffiliate or owned-and-operated stations wishing to carry suchprogramming.