Living with Muslims
The deeply troubling reports of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Pakistan and parts of Africa, and anti-Muslim sentiments in the West, are feeding a sense of the religions being at war with another.
Muslim women pray in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul days before Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey. (CNS photo/Nathalie Ritzmann)
Undeniably, Christians in many majority Muslim countries don’t have it easy. Especially where extreme Islamists are beyond the control of the state, or are even in control, the situation of Christians, and other minorities, is grim.
Muslims living in Western countries are not subjected to similar persecution. Nonetheless, Islamophobia in many countries speaks of intolerance and prejudice, amplified by belligerent rhetoric. Much of it is rooted in fear.
Both sides are liable to invoke historical grievances, going as far back as the Islamic conquests and the Crusades, and as recently as 9/11 and US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Matters are not helped by incendiary propaganda. Recently a Facebook post made the rounds claiming that Muslims were demanding that the Jesuit Georgetown University in Washington DC remove all Christian symbols. The story was a hoax, no doubt designed to deepen Christian suspicion of Muslims.
The inference was that Muslims are taking over all walks of Christian civilisation, and that Christians submit to Muslims’ demands out of a liberal fear of causing offence. But it’s not Muslims who object to Christian symbols, but secularists.
Muslims are called to be respectful of other faiths and those who practise these. This attitude found expression in the human cordons Egyptian Muslims formed around churches when these were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2013.
There are other signs of hope. Last month, a mosque in Mississauga, Canada, collected thousands of dollars for a neighbouring Catholic church which had been vandalised. Presenting the cheque of almost R50 000 to the church, Imam Hamid Slimi said: “This is what any Muslim would do.”
In his column this week, Raymond Perrier writes about the cooperation between the Denis Hurley Centre, next to Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral, and the neighbouring Grey Street mosque in feeding the indigent. The cooperation between the cathedral and the mosque (and other local faith bodies) has a long tradition, and it serves as an example of what can be accomplished by building relationships between religions.
Further afield, the Catholic-owned University of Bethlehem has a majority Muslim cohort, reflecting roughly the demographics in the Palestinian city. The university’s administration welcomes this because the interaction between Muslim and Christian students fosters mutual understanding in a world which encourages alienation and hostility.
The big political picture of Christian-Muslim relations — ISIS executions and US drones; Charlie Hebdo and Quran-burning pastors — provide us with no answers. These we must find in small acts.
We see the answers in Durban and Mississauga. We see the answers when Muslims protect worshipping Christians and Christians protect praying Muslims. We see the answers when Christians in Palestine and Syria feed fasting Muslims after the sun sets during Ramadan, and when Muslims share food on their feasts with Christian neighbours.
We must beware of applying stereotypes that are fed by the news and popular culture. Pope Francis made this explicit in The Joy of the Gospel: “Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence.”
Just as good Catholics do not want their faith associated with the bigotries of fundamentalist Christian groups, so do good Muslims not wish to be associated with fundamentalist Islamic groups. Instead of seeing good Muslims as good in spite of their faith, we must see them as good precisely because of their faith.
Our call to cooperation and mutual respect with Islam obviously does not demand that Christians should not strongly condemn acts of terror and persecution committed in the name of Islam — which are also condemned by the majority of Muslims. But when we do so, we must guard against holding all of Islam accountable for the crimes of a few extremists.
As Muslims approach the feast of Eid al-Fitr on July 18, Catholics must work to open the path to mutual understanding. This will be pleasing to the God whom both faiths believe in.
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