The week of September 12 – 18, 2011 brought 11 Moslems from the university city of Qum in Iran and 8 Benedictine monks from Europe and the U.S. to join with 3 monks already living at the San Anselmo monastery/college on the Aventine Hill in Rome. The gathering was a continuation of the dialogue which began in 2000 in northern England. Three meetings had been held in England and two in Qum in the intervening years. The Rome gathering brought together monks from similar movements in France, Holland, Italy as well as England."

Iran is a religious country and the city of Qum is often called an Islamic Oxford