Muslim-Christian Conflict: Two women look beneath the surface

by Pat McCaughan

IN nearly every "hot spot" on the globe where Muslim and Christian conflicts have been widely publicized, "religion plays just one role - [and] often it is irrelevant," says Laila Al-Marayati, a California physician who has served on the U.S. Commission for Religious Freedom and is active in local Muslim affairs. More important factors than religion, she says, are economics, politics, racism, greed, power and cultural context.

Take the November Miss World Beauty Pageant riots in Nigeria, for example.

The world was stunned and confused after hundreds of people were killed, thousands injured, thousands more driven from their homes, and 22 churches and mosques destroyed - over hosting a beauty pageant? The Western press characterized the conflict as Muslim versus Christian, triggered after a local newspaper article speculated that the Islamic prophet Muhammad might have married one of the contestants.

Anglican Bishops Josiah Fearon of Kaduna and Ben Kwashi of Jos denounced the violence as deliberately planned and orchestrated for a variety of reasons, not the least of them being political.

"Nigeria is very volatile right now," says Al-Marayati. "This instability and volatility is simmering right beneath the surface; it doesn't take much to set it off. You can't just look at just the beauty pageant. You have to look at Nigeria over the past year or so, where there's been conflicts between people and between groups and a huge number of deaths on both sides, and destruction of property on a huge level.

"Some would say it's because Muslims want to impose Islam on others. But others would say the cause is corruption, Nigerian politics, the problems with coming out of a dictatorial system and trying to manage a democracy. Talk to someone from Nigeria about tribal issues. In the southern part of Nigeria, Muslims and Christians get along fine. Often, it has to do with who has the most resources in any place. If one group feels the other one is doing better economically, it becomes a problem.

"To attribute it to religion alone is to vilify and demonize certain groups. It's hard, because I don't ever want to excuse violent acts," she says. "That kind of behavior is always wrong. But my effort would be to try to get people to look beneath the surface and understand the issues going on and to try to figure out ways reconciliation can actually take place."

Both Al-Marayati and Lucinda Mosher, chair of the Episcopal-Muslim Relations Committee of the Diocese of New York Ecumenical Commission, agree that the way news and issues are spun in the national media often drives the conversation.

Counter-productive political climate of us-versus-them

They warn that strident us-versus-them and axis-of-evil posturing is counter-productive and that the very nature of Islam itself is much more complex than media reports suggest.

A huge contributing factor is the current political climate in the U.S.

"When you paint an us-versus-them picture, it may sound good in our environment, where you're trying to create a good-versus-evil picture," says Al-Marayati, "but it doesn't go very far to help the people in Nigeria or Pakistan or Indonesia to improve their lives or to make it safer for everyone."

Mosher, who teaches Christian-Muslim relations at Episcopal seminaries in New York City and Sewanee, Tenn., says her "pivotal starting point" is a paraphrase of Christian ethicist James William McClendon, who says there's an inherent complexity to the Christian moral life not safely to be disregarded by anyone who wishes to get the story straight.

"And I contend the same must be said of Islam ... and the straight story is that Islam is all about living a moral life, about lifting up the beautiful. And it's hard work.

"Just as Americans have difficulty sorting out and remembering there are a variety of expressions of Islam, so do people on the other side of the globe have difficulty sorting out that all Christians don't hold the same theology as Franklin Graham or Jerry Falwell."

'Why do you assume hate will be preached there?'

Mosher's efforts have earned her cyber-darts and angry emails, particularly when the New York diocese partnered with a Flushing mosque to rebuild a mosque near Kabul, Afghanistan that was mistakenly targeted in U.S. bombing shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. The mosque was scheduled for rededication this past February.

"A lot of people are very puzzled about why the diocese is doing that," said Mosher. "They are very disturbed that we would help to replace a house of worship for another people when there are churches in Manhattan that need roofs repaired. 'Why don't you fix them?' they ask. Or, 'Why should you build a place in Afghanistan where hate against Americans will be preached?' My response is always, why do you assume hate will be preached there?

"The people in that community are so thrilled to have the mosque back, they are very grateful. I reply, 'Why do you think they will then teach their children to hate the people who made it possible for them to have their house of worship again?'

"Or, there are the 'Islam is nothing but evil' emails and they describe how we are somehow maligning our savior by not trying to convert Muslims," Mosher adds. "Someone on the committee answers every one of them with a biblically based pastoral letter. We just keep saying to them that, as we read our baptismal covenant, we are to see the face of Christ in every person. And so we treat each and every Muslim as if we are seeing the face of Christ in them and that is bearing witness to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit's job to convert that person if that's what the Holy Spirit desires."

Al-Marayati has also received her share of angry emails. The Los Angeles-born obstetrician-gynecologist is a spokesperson for the Muslim Women's League and a member of the board of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

"Since Sept. 11, it's much easier to generalize about Islam and Muslims in racist terms," said Al-Marayati. "At the Muslim Women's League, we posted something on the website about hate crimes increasing exponentially toward Muslims. Someone responded saying, 'You have no right to complain when your people all over the world are carrying out violent crimes in the name of your religion.' Sometimes you have to remind Americans that we in the U.S. have the highest murder rate in the world. It's unbelievable how bad it is.

Western propaganda campaign

"For some people, it is impossible to apply the same standards toward Muslims as they apply toward themselves. You can't characterize an entire group based on the actions of a few. Take the recent bombings in Israel. The media reported that they happened after six weeks of relative calm. Well, during those six weeks, 50 Palestinians were killed - men, women and children, but it didn't get reported that way. And that's what affects American public opinion," she said.

Traveling outside the U.S. offers a much different perspective, partly due to the superficial nature of the Western press, she said.

"I am becoming very cynical about the media now. It is functioning not just to promote itself and to make money but as a mouthpiece of the government. We are in the middle of a huge propaganda campaign, and you get a better sense of it when you leave the country."

Al-Marayati said the us-versus-them mentality surfaced during a guest appearance on the Fox Television Hannity and Colmes public affairs show.

"It was clear that the host, Hannity, was on the offensive against me as the Muslim guest," she says. "It was clear that the whole purpose of the discussion was again to create this us-versus-them mentality. His attitude was, 'You're violent. Even if you condemn this, you only represent a minority of Muslims. The majority are violent, aggressive people who hate everybody.' Radio commentators and even our own U.S. government give mixed messages."

'Where are the moderate Muslims?'

Mosher observes that in the Western media, the word Muslim is so often paired with such words as fundamentalist, or terrorist, or extremist that, in some circles, it's hard for Americans to think about Muslims any other way, much less to separate religious conflicts from more complex issues.

"I get asked constantly, 'Where are the moderate Muslims?' I say, 'Look around you, they're your neighbors. They are part of the fabric of our society and elsewhere and they are highly under-reported.' We always have to be careful not to paint with too broad a brush. In every single hot spot there are thugs, people who do horrible things," said Mosher.

"But it's wrong to suggest that all Muslims think violence is appropriate. Because the people who are on the fringes, those richly deserving to be labeled extremists, have been so over-reported they now set the definition in some areas as to who is legitimately Muslim. I am now seeing an urgency in certain Muslim circles to reclaim the right to define who is Muslim."

Al-Marayati is intimately acquainted with that sense of urgency.

"The way these issues are reported in this country and elsewhere takes on a life of its own," she says. "It's as if the media is trying to make a bigger point that people from different faiths can't get along, that Islam can't tolerate people of other faiths, that we want to hurt them."

A significant omission in the coverage of the Dec. 30 killings of three missionaries in Yemen, she says, was the number of Muslims who attended the services for the missionaries and the condemnation of those attacks by their Muslim neighbors and friends.

"It has a lot to do with the influence of the Christian right in particular, because when you go to the Southern Baptist Convention and hear them talk about Islam, we're the devil incarnate and any other image that reinforces that view is used and exploited to a large degree. The media picks up on that and it makes good news."

But she also noted the efforts of Robert Sieple, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who has started the Institute for Global Engagement. "He comes from the evangelical community, having headed World Vision. Their philosophy is to show by example. There are people in the evangelical community that are not hostile to working with Muslims."

Some good news, even in the hot spots

Mosher says that, despite the grim reality of Christian-Muslim conflict around the globe, there is also plenty of good news, even in the hot spots, if you seek it.

"My favorite story is about the Sudan. We hear plenty of news about the horrible things that happen and the horrible things people do to each other there. But in the southern part of Sudan there is an organization called Together for Sudan, a group of Muslims, Anglicans and Roman Catholics working together, that there might be peace."

She has served for three years as chair of the Episcopal Muslim Relations Committee of the Diocese of New York, which was founded on Sept. 11, but 10 years before Sept. 11, 2001. The group is "trying to be good neighbors, to understand that we have a national and international role and to live into it," Mosher says.

"There is something compelling about all this for us as Christians. If it's important for us to live into Jesus' mandate that we love our neighbors as ourselves, that means treating our neighbor in the press as we would have them treat us in the press. It means that we model relationships in a way that we would want them lived out here and elsewhere. If we cannot do that, we can't expect Muslims to do it either.

Created diverse 'that we might outdo each other in good deeds'

"It's a matter of where we start," Mosher says. "The Koran says that if God had so desired, God could have made all of humanity as one tribe and nation but God made us diverse that we might outdo each other in good deeds. If what drives the conversation all the time is who's picking on whom, I don't see how we move to outdoing each other in good deeds."

Al-Marayati agrees.

"What helps me is dealing with people one-on-one and finding people of all faiths that can share what we all have in common, the basic values of our faith, integrity, honesty, fellowship, forgiveness.

"It helps me in terms of not feeling alone and feeling I have hope for what we as human beings can accomplish.

"Muslims and Christians in America could do a lot if we come together to show the model we have for coexistence and respect for one another's beliefs. We could be a model for people in other parts of the world to show how we can get along. We should be at the forefront of efforts to enable groups to reconcile themselves by being aware of the limitations of the political context.

"Anytime people can work in conjunction with one another, it helps. We can start locally in our own communities. Asking the questions is very important. People in churches could invite Muslims or other experts to discuss issues of faith, to have heart-to-heart discussions so people get a better picture."

She especially encourages people to seek multiple sources of information and news.

"To get impressions from various media from around the world is to get a better idea of what's involved in some of these hot spots. But it requires initiative to go one step beyond the dialogue that may be taking place."

Pat McCaughan, who is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles, is The Witness' news editor.

This article was originally published in the March 2003 edition of The Witness. It is used here with permission.