Muslim and Christian Partnership in the Era of Extremism
by Fr. Eliseo ‘Jun’ Mercado, OMI
Badaliyya - Philippines
Muslim and Christian partnership is a major issue and concern as we prepare ourselves to face the challenges of extremism. This has been made more complex by the rise of a new strain of extremism (ISIS, ASG, “Trump-ism”) both in Islam and Christianity in our contemporary times. Coupled by historical relations that are, more often, marked by rivalry and conflict, Muslim and Christian collaboration has become a more problematic task in our age. Biases and prejudices are as strong as ever if not stronger. Often our perception of each other is shaped more by historical memory and the mass media than actual knowledge and experience.
The Rise of Extremism
Today, the rise of Extremism is a single factor that seems to block Muslim and Christian collaboration. Yet, the new strain of religious extremism is not a monopoly of Islam. Our secular humankind understands this new religious extremism in a very narrow sense. Various religious revivalist movements in Islam as well as in Christianity or in other religious traditions (in Hinduism in India and Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Burma) are, often, lumped together under a generic label of religious extremism. This is interpreted as a reaction to the present secular realities.
In Islam, the religious revivalist movement is much wider and broader. Muslims themselves like their Christian counterparts do not accept the label "fundamentalism" to describe the present religious extremism. For one thing, religious re-awakening differs from country to country. In fact, it is as complex as the very relations between Muslims and Christians.
As in the Christian re-awakening movement, the Islamic one is a desire and the determination to a “return” to the perceived basics of the religious tradition. There are those who are inspired by the ancient religious grandeur of traditions and want to replicate them in our present time. The institution and praxis of the so-called “golden era” have become their blueprint for the present and the future. On the other hand, there are those who attempt to recapture the dynamism of religion and reconcile it with the exigencies of a modern and technological era and the condition of globalization in which old rules cannot possibly remain unaltered. Then there are those who embrace the new wave religious re-awakening to oppose the increasing secularizing trends of the contemporary society.
Common Characteristics of Religious Revivalism
There are four basic common characteristics of the current religious re-awakening. First, there is the accepted blueprint of society as well as individual life. This blueprint is understood as given directly by God in the revelation. The blueprint is completed and/or nearing completion in the perceived ‘golden age’ of the religion. The members of the movement are called upon to either re-produce or hasten the realization of the said blueprint in our times.
Second is the fact that religious re-awakening is a reaction to the contemporary secularizing trends that are perceived as menace to the faith of the individuals and the community. The adherents of this movement believe that this new “secularism” and the perceived moral and social “corruption” threaten to destroy the very fiber of the traditional mooring of the individuals and societies. Re-awakening, in this sense, is a strong reaction to the present social and moral order that is perceived as a new “Paganism”.
Third, religious revivalism gives an answer to individual’s needs for healing and identity. No doubt, the woundedness and injustice, particularly the structural violence that reduces the greater number of people to poverty, seeks healing and redress. The religious re-awakening movements focus on this individual and communal “brokenness” and the necessity of healing by way of strict adherence to the imperatives of faith as given in “illo tempore”. In the same vein, the growing alienation of people in our contemporary world surfaces the need for identity and belonging where lines and parameters are clearly defined and delineated. Often, these parameters are also God-given thus cannot be changed or modified at all times. The religious reawakening movements give “security” and identity as well as belonging to individuals and groups who are considered “saved” or “redeemed” constituting the new “Holy Nation”.
Fourth, the new religious awakening is seen as an alternative vis-a-vis the growing arrogance of the state to think and decide for all. The imposition of a uniform economic and social order in this era of globalization threatens to destroy the specific character of peoples, nation and individuals. The new religious re-awakening movements take this power from the state and business and restore it to God.
There is, today, a strong belief that the new surge of religious extremism in the world is the single factor that erodes the inter-religious dialogue and collaboration that have gained currency in the post Vatican II era. Religious extremism both in Islam and Christianity as in other religions has taken an “exclusivist” form that views all others as “foreign” bodies and source of contamination and defilement.
Legacies and Hopes of Muslim-Christian Collaboration
he new religious extremism has brought to the fore the lingering resentment and injustices of our past relationships. They are deeply rooted in the psyche of Muslim-Christian encounters. With few exceptions, there was really no mutual openness between Muslims and Christians but a steady accumulation of biases and prejudices. These developed a sort of exclusivism of culture and identity drawing all things into a calculated “otherness” and reciprocity.
The legacies of the past are still alive. They remind the living of the bitter encounters between Christians and Muslims. In some instances, these legacies are enshrined in the living traditions, though mostly ceremonials and rituals, they continue to enslave the present day consciousness that prevents Muslims and Christians to venture into a new relationship of trust and brotherhood.
The historical territorial contests between “Islamic” and “Christian” powers from the seventh centuries (in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia) to the present (in the Persian Gulf and again in Asia, Middle East and Africa) continue to live on. In a similar vein, the perceived “Christian” or Western dominance in the globalizing trends of new world social and economic order is seen as another form of territorial contest that undermines the true course of Islamic history.
All these legacies are familiar enough and part of our present problem. Often, they exercise tyranny over our spirits. They have produced a culture and a habit of suspicion and confrontation that make inter-religious collaboration and dialogue, truly, a very difficult task. It requires a commitment and determination to steadily school ourselves to resist and reject our habit of preferring suspicion to trust; our instinct to prefer the familiar confrontation to a new relationship of partnership in the world that is in difficult transition.
In the past as well as today, there is an ever-growing awareness of common territory and affinity between Islam and Christianity. The Qur’an in Chapter 5 verse 82 unequivocally encourages Muslims to cooperate with Christians. “Thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are the ones who say, ‘ We are Christians’; that because some of them are priests and monks, and they wax not proud” (S.5:82).
In the same vein, the Second Vatican Council document, Nostra Aetate, clearly articulates the common territory and affinity between Christianity and Islam. “The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men. They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God’s plan, to whose faith Muslims eagerly link their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus as a prophet, his Virgin Mother they also honor, and even times devoutly invoke. Further, they await the day of judgment and the reward of God following the resurrection of the dead. For this reason they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer alms-deeds and fasting.”
“Over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims. The Sacred Council now pleads with all to forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding; for the benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.” (NA3).
The Legacy of our Relationship in the Southern Philippines
The interreligious gap and misunderstanding in the Southern Philippines has a long history. It dates back from the period of colonialism when the Philippines was annexed by Spain in the 16th century and later by the US at the turn of the 1900.
The encounter with Spanish forces was characterized by continuous war, except for intermittent truces that resulted to alienation and opposition between the Christianized Filipinos and the Islamized Filipinos now known as the “Bangsamoro peoples”.
The period during the American period was also characterized by war, only this time, by decisive military victory that put an end to the once powerful Sultanates in Mindanao and their annexation to the Philippines. This annexation paved the way for the programs of pacification and assimilation which included among others the opening of Mindanao for migration from the Luzon and the Visayas.
These historical facts have given rise to three significant realities that continue to haunt Muslim-Christian relations in the Philippines, even today. To wit:
- The lingering suspicion and lack of trust that continue to characterize the relations between Christians and Muslims;
- The sense of injustice on the part of the Bangsamoro and the Indigenous peoples for their lost ancestral domain. After years of migration, they have found themselves a minority in their traditional homeland. The Muslims are now majority only in five provinces out of the 24 in Mindanao; and
- Poverty and neglect that led to, among others, the highest in mortality, illiteracy rate, lowest in access to basic services, especially health and education.
The above three are few of the causes of the renewed rebellion in the Southern Philippines. The peace process in the Southern Philippines follows the ever-changing tide and wind of the government in Manila. This is the context that has made urgent the interface of Christianity and Islam in the Philippines.
First, there is an urgent need to distance the face of our faith traditions from the stereotypes of rebels/terrorists, on the one hand and oppressors and the army of occupation, on the other.
Christians and Muslims of goodwill, specifically bishops, ulama, ustadz, priest and lay leaders beginning in early 70’s stood for justice and respect for human rights even during the height of battles between the Philippine regular army and the Moro National liberation Front. The provinces of Cotabato and Sulu – the lands of many battles have witnessed examples of solidarity of people of goodwill from Christianity and Islam who continued to stand for justice and human rights.
The first association of Christian-Muslim Religious Leaders in Mindanao began in 1973 few months after the declaration of Martial law. Then following the Peace Agreement in 1976, a more formal national conference involving leaders of Catholics, Protestants and Muslims began to address the problems of the South and to bring these issues to the attention of the National government. Then in the 1990’s, again, as a consequence of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between the Philippine Government and the Moro National Liberation front, various Churches and Universities have begun undertaking Inter-faith dialogues and peace education programs. The Bishop-Ulama Forum was formed to support the peace process in the Southern Philippines and the implementation of the said accord.
All these initiatives contributed, through conferences and consultations, to a formation of yet another ‘thread’ beyond the familiar stereotypes and slogans in southern Philippines. This partnership, albeit still a minority, that work for peace, reconciliation and partnership attempt to build a more inclusive communities and governance.
The second is the interreligious dialogue initiative. Interreligious dialogue has a particular and peculiar history in the Philippines both in the local and national level given the situation of the war in Southern Philippines. Simply to name a few:
- A partnership to stand for justice and defense of human rights;
- A support to the peace process in Southern Philippines that continues from 1976 to the present;
- An attempt of mutual accompaniment in celebrations of festivals like Duyog Ramadhan for the Muslims and Christmas for Christians;
- A pressure on the protagonists of the war to go back to the negotiating table to settle their differences;
- Involvement of the religious from both sides of the divide in Tract II of the peace process in Southern Philippines.
- Adopting Peace Education in schools and institutions of higher learning to imbibe a culture of peace in campuses; and
- Assistance to the victims of war, specifically to the internally displaced.
In a similar vein, the religious both Muslims and Christians (Catholics and Protestants) are active in various consultations and fora that seek to impact policies affecting the Southern Philippines. These attempts to influence official policy formulation range from peacebuilding to the shape of peace agreement that will be acceptable to the major stakeholder in Mindanao.
The urgency for dialogue given the concrete context of the Southern Philippines and the attempts of leaders from both divides have greatly influenced the Philippine government to adopt interreligious dialogue as a priority in seeking a just and sustainable peace in Southern Philippines. This has become an official policy that has marked the Philippines’ strong intervention and support to interreligious dialogue at the international bodies like UN and the Alliance of Civilizations, and of late in the Non Aligned Movement.
A New Wind blowing and shaping our relationship…
Peacemaking is at the heart of our faith tradition…”Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons and daughters of God.” Peacemaking demands for a new relationship – a new solidarity for all peoples across political and ideological boundaries, across cultures and religions.
I wish to echo the late Pope John Paul II’s message in Damascus at the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, 6 May 2001.
“It is my ardent hope that Muslim and Christian religious leaders and teachers will present our two great religious communities as COMMUNITIES IN RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE, NEVER MORE AS COMMUNITIES IN CONFLICT”. It is crucial for the young to be taught the ways of respect and understanding, so that they will not be led to misuse religion itself to promote or justify hatred and violence. Violence destroys the image of the Creator in his creatures, and should never be considered as the fruit of religious conviction.”
“Better mutual understanding will surely lead to a more objective and comprehensive knowledge of each other’s religious beliefs at the practical level, to a new way of presenting our two religions NOT IN OPPOSITION, as it happened too often in the past, BUT IN PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOOD OF THE HUMAN FAMILY.”
In the same vein, the Common Word, a letter addressed primarily to Pope Benedict XVI and All Christian Leaders with 138 signatories that speak of weight, influence and scholarship open a new horizon for the search of common grounds in our partnership.. I personally consider the letter something historical with long enduring impact.
In the letter the Koran verse on tolerance is quoted: “Had God willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. “Unto God ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ” (Al-Ma’idah, S. 5:48).
This Letter is a very important step in dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Often Christians have taken the initiative regarding dialogue, and they have so done well. It is important that this first step continues in this direction with increased clarity, even showing differences and the need for correction.
I believe that with time this Letter can create an opening and a greater convergence on the more delicate issues of religious freedom, the absolute value of human rights, the relationship between religion and society, the use of violence, in short, burning issue that worries all believers in our world today.
People, institution, nation, communities, and individuals endure and are recognized by their fidelity to values and traditions they stand for. And to us, the three values that stand are family, joyful hard work and our faith & traditions. Today people admire Mother Theresa or Oscar Romero or Martin Luther King Jr. or Anwar Sadat, Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela, not because of their achievements but for the values and beliefs they stood for. They believed and lived with integrity and no embarrassment.
The need to provide the Story line…
Where do we locate ourselves within this flux and how do we view our confusion to say the least and deep crisis at worst in that new wind that blows and shapes a new world?
More than ever before, there is a need to “re-appreciate” and perhaps even “re-construct” the stories of successes and failures, of power and wealth in the present age now labeled as both “post modernism” and “post ideologies”. I turn to Gil Bailie (cf. Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads: 1996) for the apt description of this age. He takes the person of Bernard (a character in Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Waves) to depict the modern person. In the novel, Bernard says: “I have made up thousand stories. I have filled up innumerable notebooks with phrases to be used when I have found the true story, the one story to which all the phrases refer, but I have never yet found that story.”
I believe that Christians and Muslims, notwithstanding the difficulties, have found the way to the writing of the needed story line… it is there in the story of our family, tribe and clan. It is a “kindredness” shaped not only by blood, but also by our community and eco-system. And our story line rooted in faith and traditions that form our values that lay the foundational set of virtues to move together forward in achieving our goals for ourselves and for humankind. We are darn proud of our story and we share it with the world with smile in our faces and joy in our hearts.
Muslim-Christian collaboration is not something abstract. It is a human activity, which involves our total life experience. It takes place in our individual as well as communal lives as we live out our faith and conviction according to our living traditions. No doubt, our partnership and collaboration depend upon mutual trust and understanding. It demands respect for the identity as well as the integrity of the other. It rests on the conviction that God who is all merciful and compassionate desires to draw all peoples and the whole creation into a relationship of love and peace.
Our partnership should enhance a new culture that enables and empowers us to draw from each other’s traditions and common resources to help face today’s threats to global survival and work together toward peace with justice and the integrity of creation. We must spare no effort to live and work together towards reconciling conflicts, eradicating bigotry and prejudices, and empowering grassroots level communities to act upon their own choices in self-development towards a more just and participatory society.
There are no simple formulas for enhancing collaboration and partnership. Every situation demands a serious study and reflection of the many and varied factors at play. Some of these are historical, social or doctrinal. But whatever the factors and their magnitude, it is our duty to see a better community where peoples of differing faiths and traditions live in love, justice and peace. We have the obligation to emphasize, that which unites us and make a determined effort to set aside that which would divide us. We can only do this if we have full understanding of what the other believes, and are committed to the principle of respect and recognition of the beliefs and feelings of every community and person.
In this long and difficult journey of Muslim and Christian collaboration, the Spirit is with us. This same Spirit who was at work in the Incarnation, Life and Resurrection of Christ is NOW at work in our endeavors to breakdown the barriers which create division and conflict so that we can see in the other the neighbor whom we are called to love and to serve.
In the recent appeal of Muslim Scholars (the Common Word), what our relationship, ultimately, redounds to the two great commandments of Loving God and Loving our neighbors. Yes, we have a lot of differences and historical experiences both ugly and beautiful but what shall unite us is our love of God and neighbor.
The law, as St. Paul’s letter to the Romans states, leads us to sin while love and compassion leads to life and communion and forgiveness.
In concrete terms, there is the urgent need to steadily school ourselves to prefer trust to suspicion; prefer friendship to familiar confrontation; and above all, prefer love and service to the usual hatred and bigotry. This demands a shedding off the old as well as dying. But is this not the meaning of the saying: “the old gives way to the new and death leads to life?”
In Conclusion
I will end this presentation with a quote from the martyred President of Egypt Anwar Sadat (yet another Nobel Peace laureate) expressed at the Knesset during his historic visit of the Holy City of Jerusalem.
“… Yet, there remains another wall. This wall continues and constitutes a psychological barrier between us, a barrier of suspicion, a barrier of rejection, a barrier of fear, of deception, a barrier of hallucination without any action, deeds or decision. A barrier of distorted and eroded interpretation of every event and statement... It is this official statement as constituting 70% of the whole process. Today, through my visit to you, I ask why don’t we stretch out our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we might destroy this barrier?”
No doubt, we can lead the way by stretching our hands with faith and sincerity so that together we may build a new world with no borders and barriers yet preserving our identity as we tell and re-tell our story line with smile in our faces and joy in our hearts.
A final quote: “The age of nations is past. It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudice, and build the earth.” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ)
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