Central Controversy between Islam and Christianity

It has been said that the central controversy between Islam and Christianity has to do with the distancing or otherwise between the human and the divine.  It is this which pervades revelation, prophetic vocation, the ways of divine mercy, the categories of law and love, and the question of Jesus and the Cross. (Bishop Kenneth Cragg, A Muslim and Christian in Dialogue, ISBN 0-8361-9052-1).  Perhaps we have mutual experiences which we identify by different names, and it is in the exploration of this commonality and not the stiff-necked, stereotypical methods by which we identify others that will prove the most fertile ground for peace.  Are we in a religious and cultural war, or is it possible that we do not know one another at all?