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Together, More than Half the World
Prospects for Catholic-Islamic relations in the 21st century
By Michael Hirst and Nicholas Jubber
The pontificate of John Paul II has brought a marked improvement in relations between the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions. The Pope’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land last year drew attention to the respect held by Muslims and Jews for the Holy Father, and the extent to which he is eager to reach out to them. His prayer at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall was perceived both as a personal landmark and an attempt to reconcile the Abrahamic faiths in a land where the impulse toward reconciliation is sorely lacking. Most recently his pilgrimage to Syria, where he visited sites associated with St. Paul and became the first Pontiff to enter a mosque, strengthened his reputation as a religious leader anxious to embrace those not only within, but also outside, his own faith.
But recent developments in the Middle East suggest that there is much work still to be done in the field of inter-faith relations. On May 30, a Vatican envoy was dispatched to the Holy Land, as tension between Palestinians and Israelis continued to simmer, with the constant threat of renewed warfare. Only two days before the papal legate left Rome, fourteen villages in the predominantly Christian region of southern Sudan were attacked by fighter jets representing the Islamic government in the north. Each of these situations carries central importance in the development of relations between Christians and Muslims —a relationship that is bound up in a complex history of friction interspersed with friendship.
While there have always been extremists on both sides—from savage Crusaders hacking up Muslims to Mujahideen strapped with suicide bombs—the history of Christian-Muslim interaction is also characterized by noteworthy examples of cooperation. The Crusades set the benchmark for hostilities between the two faiths, but in the preceding centuries Christian and Muslim scholars had been working together in seats of learning such as Baghdad, producing translations and commentaries of Greek philosophy and science. The cultural interaction that has taken place between Muslims and Christians over the centuries has served to enrich and diversify their respective cultures. But relations were scarred by the Crusades, the generations of struggle for control of Spain, and more recently the conflict over the status of Palestine.
Dialogue and its critics
It was recognition of this historical heritage of tension at the Second Vatican Council that invigorated the creation of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue (PCID) in the Vatican. The Council’s Islam desk now oversees the dialogue with the Muslim world, stressing the bonds between these two faiths, as set out in
Nostra Aetate, a statement issued by the Council fathers in 1965. Muslims,
Nostra Aetate pointed out, “worship God, who is one, living, and subsistent, merciful and almighty . . . they venerate Jesus as a prophet. His virgin mother they also honor . . . the Sacred Council now pleads with all to forget the past.” Mohammed encouraged Muslims to treat Christians and Jews with respect as “people of the book.” Many historians believe that Mohammed was deeply influenced by Christians whom he met while working as a merchant. And today the most prominent leaders of Islam, as much as those of Christianity, are doctrinally committed to the dialogue established after Vatican II.
One of the greatest proponents of inter-religious dialogue in the last century was Pope Paul VI, pontiff at the end of the Vatican Council. In 1964, only four months after a visit to Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem, he created the Secretariat for Non-Christian Religions as a permanent department of the Vatican administration. The symbolic date of the department’s inauguration was Pentecost Sunday, in recognition of the variety of nations who gathered in Jerusalem and listened to the multi-lingual preaching of the original apostles. Msgr. Khaled Akasheh, bureau chief of the Islam desk, believes that this was a particularly appropriate choice: “It is the Holy Spirit,” he says, “who guides us in this special mission, and it remains a wish of God to unite people of different nations and beliefs.”
The PCID describes its chief aim as “the promotion of inter-religious dialogue.” To this end, the Vatican bureau serves to encourage liaison between Christians and Muslims, and encourage scholars of both faiths in the study of each other’s beliefs. The PCID is involved with institutions such as the esteemed Al-Azhar University in Cairo, addressing social questions and producing joint statements about such situations as the conflict in the Balkans and the intifada in the Holy Land.
Last year Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the PCID, signed an agreement to promote dialogue with the authorities of Al-Azhar, who represent the most respected intellectual forum in Sunni Islam. The council also hosts meetings and visits to and from Islamic countries, and publishes pamphlets intended to develop inter-religious dialogue. These include Pro Dialogo, a thrice-yearly bulletin that comprises Church texts on dialogue, articles, and news of related activities across the globe. The PCID also administers the Nostra Aetate Study Grant, which enables non-Christian scholars to study at one of the Pontifical universities or institutes in Rome. The recent tradition of papal messages in honor of Muslim festivals like Ramadan and the Holy Father’s use of Islamic terms when talking to Muslims about God are products of a heightened Vatican awareness regarding the beliefs and sensitivities of Muslims—an awareness that can be attributed in large part to the work of the PCID.
However, inter-religious dialogue is not without its critics. When the Pope visited Jerusalem last May, the Grand Mufti refused to attend an inter-religious discussion with the Holy Father and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem; in fact he was vehemently criticized for simply greeting the “the Great Heretic” (as the Pope is known in extremist Muslim circles) in a separate meeting on the holy Islamic site of Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Others have criticized the dialogue for what they construe as a lack of purpose. They feel that ecumenical debate among those who share basic Christian beliefs has more practical application than dialogue between the followers of completely different faiths, which have never been united and do not share any common creed. There is also an argument that forms of discourse such as the Al-Azhar agreement serve only a symbolic function, and that more direct action will be required to produce any progress in improving the practical relations of ordinary Christians and Muslims, outside the confined world of theological scholarship.
Msgr. Akasheh’s office near St. Peter’s Square is lined with bookshelves containing different editions of the Qu’ran and titles like Islamo-Christiana. In pride of place is a photograph of the Pope with the Mufti of Damascus, a visual symbol of the PCID’s success. Msgr. Akasheh has lived in Rome since 1992, when he arrived to study Biblical Theology and Islamology—subjects that would serve him well after his promotion a year later to the PCID. A Jordanian from Kerak, a town famous for its Crusader castle, he combines exposure to the West with a deep knowledge of the Islamic world, of which his homeland is a part. Moreover, due to his education at the seminary of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem—which is located at Beit Jala, in the Occupied Territories, now a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian tension—he is painfully aware of the disastrous effects that ensue when constructive dialogue gives way to recriminations and violence.
Political ramifications
On May 26, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Daniel Adwok, an auxiliary from Khartoum, as a member of the PCID. The appointment of a Sudanese bishop should be understood in the light of the enduring conflict between the Khartoum government and the Christian rebels in the Nuba Mountain region —where 5,000 homes had been destroyed by government air strikes just days before the appointment was announced. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army claimed that the latest attacks were part of a “scorched earth” policy designed by the Islamic government in the north to crush the southern rebels who have been fighting for the last 20 years. As a consequence of that fighting, over 2 million lives have been lost.
Bishop Adwok’s appointment underlines the Vatican’s growing interest in the role that inter-religious dialogue might play in curbing the conflicts that are raging across Africa. The continued bloodshed in many different African conflicts is a cause of rising concern for Church leaders. In his annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps on January 13, Pope John Paul remarked that “too many weapons are circulating” in Africa, and “too many countries suffer from unstable democracy and devastating corruption, while the war in southern Sudan is still causing merciless slaughtering.” No one in Rome would argue that religious conflicts are the only reason for the bloodshed, even in Sudan. But there is a steadily growing confidence that inter-religious dialogue will help to mold productive new relationships across cultural boundaries, eventually helping to build the networks that can foster negotiations to end armed conflicts, and stem the impulse toward violence when new conflicts arise.
The Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, however, restricts itself to religious questions. Its brief does not extend to socio-political issues. And Msgr. Akasheh emphasizes that in his view, political issues are far more significant than religious beliefs in the conflicts of Sudan, Nigeria, and other ‘hot spots’ across the Middle East and southern Asia. Regarding Sudan in particular, he argues that “ethnic and tribal factors,” rather than religious differences, are the fundamental cause of conflict that pits the north against the south.
However, even if religious conflicts are not the primary causes of armed clashes, political leaders usually find ways to invoke religion in their quest for power. “It is the use and misuse of religion that complicates the situation,” Msgr. Akasheh says. He points out that “it is not Muslims in general who are causing Christian suffering in the Sudan, but the political regime.” Still the Muslim leaders in Khartoum speak of building a single Islamic regime, while southern rebels warn Christians and animists of the Nuba Mountain region about the forced “Islamicization” that could befall their children.
The PCID has no mandate to comment on political problems, but Msgr. Akasheh takes pains to emphasize the Holy See’s continuing involvement in Sudan “by other means.” These means include financial support for Christian charities working in the country, like Caritas, and the application of pressure through diplomatic channels, particularly since the Holy Father’s visit to Sudan in 1993. Such work often receives little publicity, due to its sensitive and therefore secretive nature.
Mutual respect and religious freedom
In general, Msgr. Akasheh believes that the most obvious clashes between Christians and Muslims are not necessarily religious, but rather political, economic, and social in their origin. Where conflicts break out between followers of the two faiths, the instigators “don’t represent the religious ideals of their own faiths,” he insists. He explains: “If Muslims are true to the Islamic law of submission and sala’am, and Christians are true to the commandment of loving their neighbor as their brother, there will be less confrontation.”
To illustrate his argument, Msgr. Akasheh cites the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land, which he sees more in political and territorial rather than religious terms. In fact he believes that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity can—and in fact already do—play a positive role in the peace process. “These religions can remind their believers of their mutual Abrahamic heritage,” he says, “and that there is a place for all, if we recognize the rights for others that we claim for ourselves.”
Across the Middle East, indigenous Christians form an integral component of the societies in which they live—a fact that has been emphasized during the visits to the Vatican by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon earlier this year. In his remarks to both leaders, the Holy Father reiterated his call for peace in the region, in political as well as religious terms, insisting on adherence to international law and UN resolutions, and on respect for one’s neighbor. Msgr. Akasheh believes that such public statements, which are often dismissed as purely symbolic, serve an important function in building up a climate of peace insofar as “they remind the population there that Christians throughout the world, especially the Holy Father, are thinking of them, praying for them, encouraging them to find a solution other than fighting.”
Religious tensions are visible in other countries in the Middle East.
• In Iraq, Muslim-Christian relations have suffered as a result of the British-American air strikes on Saddam Hussein’s regime; there were new flare-ups when those strikes were intensified toward the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
• In Lebanon, a country that is still recovering from long and bloody civil war, the Maronite Patriarch has been outspoken in his demand for an end to Syrian military occupation. His comments have drawn a hostile response from Syria, bringing pressure on the local Christian population. [see related story on page 40]
• In Jordan, Christians have lost jobs for such offenses as wearing a necklace with a crucifix; they have been denied employment simply for having a Christian name.
• In Egypt, the growing influence of the extremist Islamic Brotherhood and a recent spate of terrorist attacks have led to fears for the safety of indigenous Christians.
While seeking closer ties with Islamic religious leaders, the Vatican has also continued to press for greater respect of religious freedom in countries governed by Islamic regimes. In his January speech to the diplomatic corps, the Pope urged that “the blatant discrimination suffered by believing communities in some countries under Islamic control summons us to vigilance and unfailing solidarity.”
In the promotion of inter-religious dialogue, Pope John Paul II leads by example. In his unprecedented visit to the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus, he prayed silently with the Grand Mufti, and then traveled to Quneitra in the Golan Heights where he offered a prayer for peace and cooperation among the peoples of the Middle East. At a recent public audience in Rome, he told the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square: “My spirit remains in Quneitra, and my prayer continues to rise there.” He promised the assembled believers that he would continue to pray for peace “until vengeance gives way to reconciliation and to the recognition of everyone’s rights.”
Pleased with the progress he has seen in his field since the Pope’s visit to Syria, Msgr. Akasheh emphasizes the warmth with which the Holy Father was greeted by the Muslim leadership. “The very fact of the encounter between the Pope and the Mufti was significant,” he says, because it reinforced the lines of similarity between the two faiths rather than emphasizing their differences. The Pope’s promotion of mutual acceptance across religious lines matches the philosophy of Nostra Aetate, which called upon the faithful of all religions to “forget the past and work towards mutual understanding as well as toward the preservation and promotion of social justice, moral welfare, peace, and freedom for the benefit of all mankind.”
The Pope’s visit to Syria, therefore, served a dual purpose. While showing a keen awareness of the political realities in the region, he stressed the spiritual nature of his pilgrimage, thereby sustaining local Catholics in their faith from a pastoral dimension. He also demonstrated the importance of inter-religious dialogue through his silent prayer of solidarity with the Mufti, and insisted on the need for education as an important component of Muslim-Christian dialogue.
The need for education, in which Christians and Muslims learn more about each other’s beliefs, is considered a paramount need at the local level. For that reason, the PCID actively persuades small Catholic communities to become more involved in projects and activities that will promote interaction with other faiths.
The year 2001 has been declared by the United Nations as an International Year of Dialogue between Civilizations —a time, as Pope John Paul has said, for “building the civilization of love, based upon the recognition that there are values which are common to all cultures because they are rooted in the nature of the person.” With 2 billion Christians and 1.3 billion Muslims accounting for more than half of the world’s total population, the two faiths have an integral role to play in this process. The Pope believes, “If we were convinced that we are all called to live together, that it is wonderful to come to know one another, to respect and help one another, the world would be radically different.”
On a visit to Pakistan in 1981, the Holy Father addressed an audience of religious and governmental leaders with these words: “I pray that this mutual understanding and respect between Christians and Muslims, and indeed between all religions, will continue and grow deeper, and that we will find still better ways of cooperation and collaboration for the good of all.” The success of his recent trip to Syria, and the ongoing work of the PCID, demonstrate that the Church’s commitment to a better understanding with Islam is strong; indeed it is a major priority for Catholicism entering third millennium.