Ron-Kid
HasbunAllahu wa ni`mal Wakil '
What makes you think Christians and Muslims are up for dialogue and conflict resolution after 1400 years, they’re much better at being enemies?’ This is my friend teasing me about the impossibility of my work.
One of my Muslim colleagues regularly opened our events saying ‘for the past fourteen hundred years we have been rivals, mission and proselytizing lies at the very heart of our two religions.’
I want to offer brief thoughts on Christian-Muslim conflict and explore alternatives.
What are the roots of conflict? I think most of us agree that this has a lot to do with boundaries – between people, religions, countries – border squabbles and disputes. It’s good to knowing our boundaries, why they are there, and tread carefully. It's OK to have boundaries; you wouldn't want me to pitch my tent on your front lawn uninvited. I’m sure that you would gently direct me to the nearest campsite! But, being abusive to someone who parks on the public road outside your house is another thing.
Christians and Muslims are well aware of boundaries – we say Muhammad was God’s final Messenger, while we say Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You couldn’t ask for a clearer boundary, which is fine, we know where we stand. But conflict is deeper than that; difference often seems to be a problem, rather than a distinctive. Why is that?
I think the root issue is of insecurity, particularly of threat. This manifests in different ways - politically, culture shock, power struggles, and reactionary responses. These are probably just different ways of looking at the same thing.
Missionaries
Political conflict can be described as tribalism, seeking to get what is best for our tribe, those like us, millionaires or marginalized, asylum seekers or tax avoiders, should we cut housing benefit or tax mansions? Different positions and expressed choices, but our political system thrives on conflict, on opposition, and this is reflected, or reinforced, by the media.
Do you ever look at politics and wish it was more like ecumenism or interfaith? Labor will never be Conservative and Catholic will never be Protestant, but which pairing, generally, has the more constructive relationship?
So is tribalism a key factor in inter-religious conflict? It fits the situation in Nigeria where Christian-Muslim tensions match tribal affiliations, it wasn’t always this way. Pentecostal missionaries (I’m not being anti-Pentecostal) arrived in Nigeria, they were not indigenous and they were not Islam-friendly; unlike the Christians already living there, they were also keen to seek ‘converts’.
Mission and conversion are sources of conflict, provocative acts, Jesus didn’t say ‘Go and do mission, evangelize, seek conversions’, he said ‘Go and make disciples’ which is very different.
Tribalism fits in Bosnia, the Christian Muslim Forum sent a group of UK Christians and Muslims there to witness conflict resolution after the war. Again, the Bosnians lived in peace for hundreds of years and then neighbor turned against neighbor on the basis of ethno-religious difference.
We see warring tribes in this country, the BNP (which seems to have imploded), EDL and groups like Muslims Against the Crusades. They thrive on tension, conflict (maybe not fully expressed in wider society) and intolerance.
Intolerance is a good marker of conflict, though tolerance is too – I don’t like your presence but will put up with it grudgingly because I have to.
Can the factors I listed be tied in with Christian-Muslim relations? The political/tribal issue is opened up every time we hear ‘this is a Christian country’ especially when it is associated with challenging the place of Islam here, as the BNP and EDL have done, as well as some Christian organizations.
For some it seems that to be anti-Muslim is to be Christian, but where did they get that idea? Not from the Gospels!
Can we think of any here, yeah the secret societies, the skulls and bones members, Illuminatis and freemasons, and their zionist god fathers
One of my Muslim colleagues regularly opened our events saying ‘for the past fourteen hundred years we have been rivals, mission and proselytizing lies at the very heart of our two religions.’
I want to offer brief thoughts on Christian-Muslim conflict and explore alternatives.
What are the roots of conflict? I think most of us agree that this has a lot to do with boundaries – between people, religions, countries – border squabbles and disputes. It’s good to knowing our boundaries, why they are there, and tread carefully. It's OK to have boundaries; you wouldn't want me to pitch my tent on your front lawn uninvited. I’m sure that you would gently direct me to the nearest campsite! But, being abusive to someone who parks on the public road outside your house is another thing.
Christians and Muslims are well aware of boundaries – we say Muhammad was God’s final Messenger, while we say Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You couldn’t ask for a clearer boundary, which is fine, we know where we stand. But conflict is deeper than that; difference often seems to be a problem, rather than a distinctive. Why is that?
I think the root issue is of insecurity, particularly of threat. This manifests in different ways - politically, culture shock, power struggles, and reactionary responses. These are probably just different ways of looking at the same thing.
Missionaries
Political conflict can be described as tribalism, seeking to get what is best for our tribe, those like us, millionaires or marginalized, asylum seekers or tax avoiders, should we cut housing benefit or tax mansions? Different positions and expressed choices, but our political system thrives on conflict, on opposition, and this is reflected, or reinforced, by the media.
Do you ever look at politics and wish it was more like ecumenism or interfaith? Labor will never be Conservative and Catholic will never be Protestant, but which pairing, generally, has the more constructive relationship?
So is tribalism a key factor in inter-religious conflict? It fits the situation in Nigeria where Christian-Muslim tensions match tribal affiliations, it wasn’t always this way. Pentecostal missionaries (I’m not being anti-Pentecostal) arrived in Nigeria, they were not indigenous and they were not Islam-friendly; unlike the Christians already living there, they were also keen to seek ‘converts’.
Mission and conversion are sources of conflict, provocative acts, Jesus didn’t say ‘Go and do mission, evangelize, seek conversions’, he said ‘Go and make disciples’ which is very different.
Tribalism fits in Bosnia, the Christian Muslim Forum sent a group of UK Christians and Muslims there to witness conflict resolution after the war. Again, the Bosnians lived in peace for hundreds of years and then neighbor turned against neighbor on the basis of ethno-religious difference.
We see warring tribes in this country, the BNP (which seems to have imploded), EDL and groups like Muslims Against the Crusades. They thrive on tension, conflict (maybe not fully expressed in wider society) and intolerance.
Intolerance is a good marker of conflict, though tolerance is too – I don’t like your presence but will put up with it grudgingly because I have to.
Can the factors I listed be tied in with Christian-Muslim relations? The political/tribal issue is opened up every time we hear ‘this is a Christian country’ especially when it is associated with challenging the place of Islam here, as the BNP and EDL have done, as well as some Christian organizations.
For some it seems that to be anti-Muslim is to be Christian, but where did they get that idea? Not from the Gospels!
Can we think of any here, yeah the secret societies, the skulls and bones members, Illuminatis and freemasons, and their zionist god fathers