Affinity Intercultural Foundation

Muslims and Christians Living in Peace | Sydney, 15th August 2008

Mehmet Ozalp, Author, Occasional Lecturer

This address was delivered at the interfaith event organised by Affinity Intercultural Foundation with ALIVE Indonesian youth group and Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Churches in Northern Beaches, Sydney Australia. The event was titled “Muslims and Christians Living in Peace”.

My immediate answer to the question, “can Muslims and Christians live in peace”, is a resounding “yes”. My heart tells me “I long for peace.” In spite of the scepticism of the mind, even my reason tells me “yes, we can live in peace. Why shouldn’t we?”

 

Muslims and Christians share a long history together. Even though there were spikes of war and conflict, the spectrum of relations between Muslims and Christians marks longer lasting periods of peace than war. We lived together in Jerusalem in peace for centuries prior to the Crusades. The name Jerusalem comes from the Arabic dar us-salam, meaningabode of peace. The Muslim city of Córdoba in Spain was a shining example of a multi-faith society that lasted five hundred years. In the 9th century, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad brought together scientists and scholars from all religious backgrounds. Muslims and Christians lived together in peace for more than four centuries under the Ottoman tutelage where pluralistic social policies were put in practice in the Balkans, Middle East and Caucuses, which are plagued with conflict today. If it happened many times before, we can certainly do it one more time in the 21st century.

 

I am cognisant of the fact that the spikes of discord and conflict in our history make many people doubt the human capacity for goodness and blame religions as the source of all conflict in the world. I think differently. One of the great Muslim theologians of the 20th century, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960), said that peace is a constructive process and war is destructive by nature. Destruction is easy but construction is difficult. In order to construct a building, for example, one needs to employ many skilled people and spend a considerable amount of money over a long period of time but its destruction can come through a single bomb blast. Similarly, peace must be constructed as well by architects, engineers and workers of peace. But it can be destroyed by the single act of a terrorist. This is why we sometimes get the impression that war and conflict seem to be winning over peace. We should not be disheartened and should understand that in order to establish and maintain peace we will need to exert a great effort over a relatively long time. That is, we need to make a jihad for peace because exerting great effort for a good cause is precisely the meaning for jihad.

 

Notwithstanding that this is the nature of things, I believe that human beings have a greater capacity for goodness than causing evil. We prefer peace over conflict by our very nature. Let me ask you: is there anyone in the audience who likes war? Have you met anyone who genuinely likes war?

 

Perhaps there are few but definitely not the greater majority of any society.

 

The most important agent in the question of peace is the human being. There are important teachings of the Qur’an with respect to human capacity for goodness.

After highlighting these positive aspects of human nature, the Qur’an also warns us about the destructive aspect of human nature, in that, we carry with us an entity called the nafs, the egotistical soul that is the source of selfishness, evil temptations and insatiable desires of the flesh. Although we have the ability to recognise goodness and strive to uphold what is right, our choices are sometimes negatively influenced by the emotions, desires and the selfish impulses of the nafs. All human evil is a product of the unpurified human nafs let loose.

 

The collective message of the Qur’an is that if the seed-like human nature, which has great capacity to do good, is not purified through education and perfected through belief and good deeds, it will be degraded to mere physical existence and be the source of oppression through the misuse of the powers and machinery it has been granted by God. In such a corrupted state, a human being will be like an atomic bomb in the hands of a rogue state. A serial killer is such a rogue person. A paedophile is such a rogue person. An angry person lashing out his anger on other people is such a rogue person. When such rogue people get their hands on the reigns of power, they have no qualms about causing deaths of countless people. The human capacity can only be unleashed through education, good deeds and faith.

 

Therefore, education is the first instrument of peace...

Education must have two key goals with respect to peace. 

Firstly, education content and philosophy must cultivate inner peace in human beings. The instrument of education must nurture, not generation X, Y or Z, but it must raise the golden generation of today and tomorrow. People are not letters, they are the focal point of the universe and divine intent in the scheme of creation. The seed-like potential within us must be cultivated with science and faith merged together to generate true wisdom. 

Secondly, education must instil in young and old the values and principles that facilitate the conditions for peace for peace can only exist under certain conditions.

 

The first condition of peace is tolerance...

Tolerance in my understanding is to accept the ‘other’ in their own frame of reference. I should be accepted as a Muslim not as you see it but as I define myself. I should accept a Christian not as I see it but as a Christian defines himself or herself.

Some people understand tolerance as an inferior principle - you don’t like someone but you can tolerate his mere existence. Even if we define tolerance in this manner, there are plenty of places on earth where people are unable to even do that. Tell me, were those people who objected to the establishment of the Muslim school in Camden tolerant? Hardly so! If I ask, would you like to have a Muslim family living next door to you? What would your honest answer be deep down?

Good neighbourly relationships are a very important test of tolerance. In the early history of Islam, there was great emphasis on good neighbourly relations and even on the rights of neighbours. One Companion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that “The Prophet of God emphasised the rights of neighbours so much so that we were expecting a revelation that would declare our neighbours as heirs to our inheritance.” This was at a time when most of Muslims’ neighbours were not believers and Muslims were persecuted by the very same people living next door. Didn’t Jesus (peace be upon him) say “love your neighbour” as well?

 

The second condition of peace is the ethic of accepting every human being as inherently equal...

If people see one another as lesser human beings then we have no hope for peace. In the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Hutus were able to massacre close to 1,000,000 Tutsis by calling Tutsis “cockroaches” – as pests that need to be exterminated. Hitler was able to cause the deaths of millions of Jews with his racist Aryan theories.

One of the core teachings of Islam is that we are inherently equal in the court of God. “We love human being for the sake of the creator” said Yunus Emre, Muslim mystic from 13th century. When they asked Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), what he thinks about non-Muslims he said, “a Muslim is my brother in religion and a non-Muslim is my brother in humanity”. He learnt his lesson well from the Prophet.

 

The third condition of peace is that we must recognise the commonalities between us...

We all share universal human values such as justice, fairness, service to humanity and so on as timeless principles that we all want and cherish irrespective of which racial, cultural or religious background we come from.

The commonality between Muslims and Christians is especially striking.  The Qur’an says: “...You will find that the people most affectionate to believers are those who say, 'We are Christians.' That is because some of them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.” (Qur’an, Al-Ma’ida, 5:82).

The Qur’an calls Christians and Jews the people of the book recognising the divine source of revelations. It invites Christians and Jews saying: “Say: ‘O People of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than God’...” (Qur’an, 3:64)

The name of Jesus (peace be upon him) is mentioned 25 times in the Holy Qur'an whereas the name Muhammad is only mentioned five times. Believing in Jesus (peace be upon him) as a messenger of God is a central tenet of Islam. No Muslim would even dare to reject Jesus (peace be upon him) outright.

The Qur’an tells us that Jesus (peace be upon him) is held in high honour and will be one of those closest to God in the Hereafter (Qur’an, 3:45). He was strengthened with the Holy Spirit while he performed many miracles by the power of God. He was born without a father and was conceived as a result of a Word of God decreed onto Mary (Qur’an, 3:47).

The Qur’an also has a chapter titled Mary and speaks highly of Mary, mother of Jesus, saying: “Behold! The angels said: "O Mary! God has chosen you and purified you; chosen you above the women of all nations.” (Qur’an, 3:42)

These are very important commonalities that we can focus on when fostering good relations between Muslims and Christians. Nevertheless, there are differences. This leads me to the fourth and last condition of peace.

 

The fourth condition of peace is that we must have the attitude that our differences should be seen as a reason to get to know one another not as a source of conflict...

The Qur’an declared in 49:13: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things”.

Every word in this verse is significant. Ultimately, we all come from the same ancestry. Our separation into nations of different races and cultures was in God’s plan. So our differences must be a reason for curiosity and we should get to know one another. The only source of superiority is how good we are and that is up to God to judge, not us.

One of the root causes of conflicts in the world is that people do not like those who are different to them. It is absolutely important that difference and diversity is seen as source of richness rather than conflict. Wouldn’t life be boring if everyone was the same, ate the same food and wore the same clothes? Not even twins are completely alike let alone people who come from different corners of the globe.

 

Therefore, to establish peace and maintain it, we must:

Peace is a reciprocal process though. It requires at least two counterparts who can talk to one another and relate to one another. It is not possible to have peace if one side fulfils the conditions for peace but the other side does not. The mutual fulfilment of conditions of peace occurs through the process of dialogue.

Therefore, dialogue is the second fundamental instrument of peace...

Two crucial instruments of peace, education and dialogue, when combined generate synergy and amazing results.

I know this by first-hand experience. I would like to tell you about a story amongst many fantastic examples I have personally witnessed. In June this year, I was in Northern NSW for a series of interfaith seminars as part of the Studies of Religion subject taught in HSC. Students enrolled in this subject study major world religions. Some schools also engage students in real-life interfaith experiences to complement what they study in the classroom. So, I was in Northern NSW travelling from Lismore to Coffs Harbour doing talks in schools. At the same time in June, there was the public issue of the campaign in Camden to stop the construction of a school application made by Muslims. Tired and disheartened, I was worried of the possible repercussions. Just when I was feeling this way, the principal of one of the schools wanted to show me a letter sent by one his graduates. He ran and brought me a two page letter. I just want to read you an excerpt from this letter.

“I am writing to thank you, and to thank the school, generally for the education and the whole experience of high school but also specifically in relation to studies in religion and the influence of studying Islam within that subject. I have been closely following the reaction to the proposed Islamic school in Camden and the recent rejection of that proposal which was accompanied by truly horrific and disgraceful comments by a minority of the residents of Camden. The story brought to my attention the cruelty and hatred which can arise from a lack of understanding and a willingness to accept what we are told... Studying Islam made me challenge the perceptions presented by the prevalent majority of the media and the case with which I had accepted these opinions without question or without considering the truth of the religion of Islam. This has allowed me to see that the opinions aired by the minority of Camden residents come from a misunderstanding of Islam as a religion and intolerance fuelled by media bias. Through Studies of Religion, I have been able to see Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, as a religious tradition based on peace and understanding, not on violence and discrimination. Thank you for the wonderful education provided by the school. I am incredibly proud to have been a student at Xavier Catholic College.”

This is very powerful indeed. This letter gave me renewed energy to go on. I almost saw the compassionate encouragement of God through the words of this young person whispering to my consciousness, “don’t think that your efforts are fruitless and futile, collectively you are making a real difference, keep going”. I prostrated in humility and thanked God for this subtle message.

We have no choice but to trust the inherent goodness imprinted in human nature. We need to believe in the human capacity for goodness and know that God is on the side of those who are good. We need to focus on the good moments of our history and cherish and celebrate times of peace. We need to create the Cordoba of today. We must temporarily put our religious differences aside and focus on our commonalities so that we can solve global problems threatening all of us. We need to concentrate on education and dialogue as fundamental instruments of peace - just like we are doing tonight. We need architects, workers and volunteers of peace who will achieve peace today and construct a peaceful future in our beautiful country of Australia.