Living with Islam

Christians in many predominantly Muslim countries are increasingly under pressure, with daily attacks on their safety and dignity finding expression in lethal terror attacks, unjust legislation, forced conversions and other forms of religious discrimination.

But important distinctions must be drawn between the sources of these persecutions and Islam as a religion. No good purpose is being served by equating the terrorism of al-Qaeda or the legislated injustices in, say, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan with the practice of Islam or its teachings.

Indeed, there are hazards in regarding Islam and its followers as one monolithic entity. Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is fragmented, with competing sects and philosophies at times in violent conflict. Even within sects, there are matters of sharp disagreements, as there are within Christian denominations such as the Catholic Church.

It is not helpful to blame Islam in itself for the persecution of Christians in predominantly Muslim regions, just as it is not helpful when Muslims attribute Western hostility (or even attacks by one Christian group) to all of Christianity. Distorted perceptions are quickly exploited by people of ill will, and almost always create a backlash.

A cycle of intolerance is perpetuated when imprudent characterisations of Islam in the West are attributed to all Christians, and Christians in turn ascribe acts of violence to all the adherents of a deeply fragmented religion.

Only militants and bigots benefit from that.

Prudence is necessary. There are profound consequences for Christians living in Karachi, Kabul or Kirkuk when a cartoonist in Copenhagen sets out to offend Muslims, regardless of the cartoonist’s religious views or his motivations.

In history, religion has often served as a proxy for social or political struggles and, indeed, bigotries. As Pope Benedict said last year when he visited Jordan: “Often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division and at times even violence in society.”

Christians in Muslim countries almost invariably have long traditions there, often predating the advent of Islam by centuries. By contrast, in almost all of Europe, the growth of Islam is a fairly recent phenomenon, brought about by immigration.

Nonetheless, the postconciliar Catholic Church has vigorously defended Muslims’ rights to religious freedom, wherever they are. But, as Pope Benedict has rightly pointed out, just as Muslims enjoy substantial or full religious freedom in traditionally Christian countries, so should Christians enjoy corresponding religious freedom in Muslim countries (as they already do in some).

Pope Benedict has called for a sense of “reciprocity” as a means of working towards such mutual religious liberty. By this he does not mean a conditional quid pro quo arrangement. Rather, the pope is calling on people of different religions to collaborate in ensuring religious freedom, aiming to build, as he put it, a “relationship founded on mutual respect”.

This is already happening in many parts of South Africa, with the relationship between Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral and the nearby Juma Musjid mosque providing an exemplary model for reciprocity.

The notion of reciprocity predates Pope Benedict’s pontificate. The 2004 Vatican instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi (The Love of Christ Towards Migrants) said that “healthy reciprocity will urge each [believer] to become an ‘advocate’ for the rights of minorities when his or her own religious community is in the majority”.

Ideally, then, Catholics in Europe should support the construction of mosques in their cities, and Muslims in Saudi Arabia should in turn agitate for the building of churches in their country.

But even if only one side exercises such tolerance, the Church argues, religious freedom is non-negotiable. So even if our Christian brothers and sisters in Muslim countries are being intimidated, persecuted and even killed, Catholics must regardless take a stand for religious liberty for all—including Muslims.