PEOPLE TO PEOPLE

POLITICS TO POLITICS

Harold Vogelaar, Visiting Professor of World Religions

Even before September 11, 2001, people wanted to know about the 25-years Harold Vogelaar spent as a missionary in the Arabian Gulf and Egypt. Since that tragic day, he's even more in demand and can be found many nights and most weekends talking about Islam in congregations, schools, and in interviews. Always interesting, that topic has taken on a new dimension as people hunger to understand what Muslims believe and what precipitated that day that will be forever etched in our minds. Here Vogelaar reflects on the workshops that he gives on Islam.

If one is looking for signs of hope, of something good emerging from the tragedy of 9/11, it can be found in our midst. Across the country one hears heartwarming stories of people reaching out to Muslim neighbors in genuine attempts to show hospitality and concern. One hears stories of Christians who, in certain tense areas, surrounded mosques with a human chain in order to protect them. In some places, Christian women even started to wear the veil to show solidarity with their Muslim sisters. Muslims, too, have begun to open their mosques, inviting people in just to get acquainted.

These stories, though seldom in the news, continue on a daily basis. What's important is that these portents be nurtured and nourished and multiplied again and again.

Overseas too, the picture is not nearly so bleak as sometimes imagined. Violence is not endemic nor do most Muslims dislike Americans. During my long sojourn in the Middle East, I was often told, "people to people, politics to politics," meaning, we disagree with your government's policies, but we like the American people.

Two quotes best illustrate the point.

Richard Caemmerer (visiting professor of theology and art), who was in Morocco on September 11, writes that the hotel he and his study group stayed in worked "diligently to keep us in contact with our loved ones. Our Muslim guide, Muhammad, joined us in prayer for the safety of the world, the comfort of the sorrowing, and the souls of the departed. In small villages, children learning that we were Americans made signs of falling tears on their cheeks. An Imam [religious leader] gave us a special blessing. Homes were made available to us for uncommon acts of hospitality. Nowhere during the entire journey did we experience so much as a hint of anger, hatred, or mistrust."

From Iran, a young American student writes: "On my way home, I stopped at a small flower shop and asked for five roses. During this time [when the owner wrapped each one carefully] he asked me to sit on a chair crowded into his tiny shop. We talked of where I was from, what I was doing in Iran and how much he would like to go to the United States. When I told him the roses were for my wife, he selected a small card with a verse of love written in Persian script. He insisted that because I was his guest in Iran, there was no charge."

These are just glimpses, not the whole story.

September 11 also unleashed powerful forces of evil, destructive not only of lives and buildings, but of human values which can lead to a feeling of contempt for humanity. At times, religion is singled out as the main factor behind what violence there is. In fact, the issues are mostly economic, social and political--not religious. They are issues of justice, fairness, equity, and freedom, which if we confronted them, would also make us angry.

As part of a small effort to do more, I have tried during my workshops to focus on five areas that need attention. First, that Muslims see their faith as rooted in the faith of Abraham.

Rooted in the Faith of Abraham

The Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca is a central duty of Islam. In carrying out this obligation, Muslims fulfill one of the five pillars of Islam, or central religious duties of the believer. In addition to Hajj, the pillars include a declaration of faith (Shahadah); a prescribed ritual of prayer (Salaat); fasting (blessings of Ramadan); and Zakaat, which means purification through the giving of alms.

During the Hajj, Muslims celebrate Eid al Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) as a commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God. They also reenact the plight of Hagar seeking water for her son, Ishmael, whose father Abraham had sent them away into the desert.

The Qur'an tells us that Abraham constructed the Kaaba (mosque) in Mecca with Ishmael. It also tells us that Abraham instructed Ishmael in the worship of God and modeled that faith by coming to His Lord with a pure heart, a heart undivided, given in loyalty to God alone.

Interesting also is the tradition that Hagar, a woman, an African, a slave, and for whom there was no room in the tent of Abraham, is buried in the precincts of the Kaaba.

As Lutherans we have now started to say "Abraham and Sarah" in our liturgies, with the good intention of being more inclusive. What we need to remember, however, is that Hagar is then excluded.

I ask people to look again at the outstretched arms of Jesus on the Cross, himself now cast out, and to ask whether, in his embrace of forgiving love and mercy, they can see a special relationship to Hagar and her descendents. In other words, is it possible to see in the embrace of Christ a reversal, as it were, of Hagar's exclusion from the tents of Abraham and Sarah?

To these questions there are no easy answers, but we need to revisit the stories and look at them in the light of new queries.

Muhammad and the Qur'an

Secondly, we spend time on the person of Muhammad, the Qur'an that was revealed to him, and the basic teachings of Islam. For many in our churches, Muhammad remains an enigma and when asked by Muslims what they think of him, they have no way of responding. Christians need to learn something of this Prophet of Islam, his life and teachings.

Christians also need to do some reading in the Qur'an, which Muslims consider to be the literal Word of God. In it one can find passages to support a variety of views. Even Osama bin Laden quotes the Qur'an to support his position of inflicting murder on innocent men, women, and children, especially if they are from or represent Western interests. Not unlike Christians, Muslims can pick and choose verses that suit their cause.

Most are surprised to learn that many of the ethical teachings of the Qur'an are as noble and enlightened as in the Bible. For example, I often quote these words from Sura 17:32 "Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, do not say to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor. And out of kindness lower to them the wing of humility, and say, 'My Lord! Bestow on them your mercy even as they loved me when I was a child.'" Older people love it!

Many in our churches are surprised to see so many similarities between what Muslims and Christians believe. Together we believe in God, angels, prophets, sacred texts, a day of judgment, and the sovereignty of God, though each is differently nuanced. It is against this backdrop of similarities that I introduce differences which are distinct and sometimes sharp, especially regarding Christology. Muslims, after all, do not believe in the divinity of Christ or in his death upon a cross--two key elements at the heart of the Good News.

We also look at the concept of jihad or "striving in the way of God" as that gets a lot of press these days. It's often during this session that a Muslim is along and does most of the teaching and usually answers a lot of questions.

Christian-Muslim Relations

During the third session we take a look at some key events in the long history of Christian-Muslim relations. Much that is negative has given rise to vicious stereotyping on both sides. We examine some of these, and try to lay at least a few to rest.

A favorite among Christians is that Islam is a religion of good works and has no sense of grace and love. Among Muslims, it is generally believed that Christians have little or no regard for religious law. Everything is by love and grace. What we find interesting is that when rules and regulations dominate our lives to the exclusion of love and grace, fear and punishment ride heavy on our shoulders. And when grace and love are taken to the exclusion of rules and regulations, grace becomes cheap and love becomes license. That we might actually complement each other to our mutual benefit, is for many a new and novel idea. "I never thought of it that way before" is often heard as we move through this section.

We also try to highlight many positive things that happened throughout history and how in various ways the West has become a beneficiary of Muslim learning and science. The use of Arabic numerals is just one example. We in the West need to know of the greatness and grandeur that once accompanied Islamic empires.

Contemporary Scene

For the fourth session, we look at the contemporary scene and try to move behind headlines into heartlines. We look at the impact colonialism had on the Muslim psyche. For many years, nearly 80 percent of the Muslim world was under Western (Christian) domination.

We look at the search for renewal and renaissance following colonialism and how secularism was tried and essentially failed (for Arabs, it was the 1967 war with Israel) giving rise to voices from the conservative right that cried out, "Why not give Islam a chance?" The 1973 victory of Egypt over Israel in the Sinai and the 1979 overthrow of the Shah in Iran were seen as signs of God's favor. But even while there was renewed hope among the more religious, the forces opposing them were gaining momentum.

Graham Fuller, a Middle East specialist with the CIA during the 1980s is quoted as saying, "There was a genuine visceral fear of Islam in Washington as a force that was utterly alien to American thinking, and that really scared us. Senior people at the Pentagon and elsewhere were much more concerned about Islam than communism. It was an almost obsessive fear, leading to a mentality on our part that you should use any stick to beat a dog--to stop the advance of Islamic fundamentalism." The dog, of course, was Iran, and the stick was Iraq.

Simultaneously, the United States armed Afghan rebels to fight Russia, recruiting people from the Arab world and calling them "mujahidin," or fighters for God. bin Laden was among those trained by the CIA.

Then in the 1991 Gulf war, we broke the stick used to beat the dog. And now we are at war with the bin Ladens of this world, people we helped train in the art of terror, a skill now turned against us.

The Driving Forces

During the last session, we look at grievances that seem to drive some in the Arab/Muslim world to such hatred of the West. The prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel; the death of so many Iraqis, mostly women and children, as a result of sanctions; the West's policy of putting its interest in oil above the peopleÕs cry for freedom and democracy in the Middle East, and the continuation of U.S. troops on Saudi soil

For a few, terror seems to be the only effective weapon against tyranny. This forces us to look at our own choice between security or peace. The Christian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote:

How does peace come about? Through a system of political treaties? Through the investment of international capital in different countries? Through the big banks, through money? Or through universal peaceful rearmament in order to guarantee peace? Through none of these, for the single reason that in all of them peace is confused with safety. There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war. (No Rusty Sword, 180-181).

Many do not agree, but the words do solicit engaging conversation. We all want security. But at what price and at whose expense? Is there a way to peace, or is peace-making the way?

In the Middle East there are close to 10 million Christians. In the United States, there are between seven and eight million Muslims. We are neighbors, colleagues, fellow citizens; our lives are inextricably linked. There is much we have in common. To be sure, Muslims have their distinct witness, as do Christians. We conclude by reminding ourselves that the message of "God. . . in Christ reconciling the world to Godself" is a message of hope and healing that has been entrusted to us, earthen vessels though we be. Ours is no small task in this fractured world. Yet to do it, we have been promised nothing less than the power of the Holy Spirit. We always end on this note of promise and hope.