ALIEN, BUT PART OF US: THE MUSLIM WORLD
published in Sunday Visitor, 1991
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien" (Ex. 22:20).
Which group or society in the world is most alien to us as Christians?
Up until last year we looked at the Communist world as the most alien. Professedly atheist, it has actively suppressed anything smacking of Christianity or any other religion. But Communism is now fast vanishing.
We can find hostility to Christianity right in our own country. Look at the Ku Klux Klan - founded to oppose Blacks, Jews and Catholics. Look at the courts which want to penalize Churches which support pro-life activity. Look at poverty and need all around while people think nothing of spending 10s or 100s or 1000s on frivolities and high life style. We might excuse thoughtless selfishness, but look at the rise of a whole new criminal category: hate crimes, specifically targeting aliens in race or religion.
In spite of all this, our secular free world with its market forces is not intrinsically and formally hostile to Christianity and justice, but hostile only to the extent that it is directed by people lacking in love. Christians can exert their own influence within the system and do not have to become a marginalized ghetto.
Other alien systems the Church has to deal with are the world religions. Let me talk in particular about Islam, since I have been teaching about it for 20 years. Islam is strong, first on the mystical level: Muslims (those who practice Islam) have a firm faith in God which they are never ashamed to express in public ritual prayer, in fasting and in reverence for Muhammad and the revelations he claimed and left for them in the Qur'an. They also honor Jesus as a prophet and Mary as his Virgin Mother. On the active level Muslims have a strong community solidarity strengthened by giving to the needy, pilgrimage to Mecca, the defence of Muslim interests, and the enforcement of a whole range of social regulations which they regard as God's law.
The mystical and active aspects of Islam are often backed up by real love, especially among the common people who frequently put Christians to shame in their goodness and compassion, even to strangers. This practical love is the result of God's grace operating directly in them as individuals and through their traditional culture. The religion of Islam stresses right more than love. It commands helping needy Muslims, but not strangers. This weakness of the Islamic religion derives from its rejection of the possibility of an intimate, close relationship with God: According to Islam, we cannot be friends of God, or share his nature or be temples of his Spirit. If our love of God is so restricted, how can we have a comprehensive love of our neighbor?
When love is weak, the mystical aspect of Islam gets distorted. Rituals, instead of being a support, become a dependency, used to give Muslims a pharisaical self-respect distracting them from the rights and needs of their neighbors. The active aspect of Islam also gets distorted. Community solidarity becomes intolerance of non-Muslims, as Islamic law puts Christians into second-class citizenship. Look at the hundreds of churches burnt over the past 5 years in Egypt and Nigeria. Look at the imposition of Islamic law on Christians in the Sudan and the attempt to starve them into submission. Look at Saudi Arabia where foreign Christian workers have no facilities for worship and priests are arrested for saying Mass for foreign oil company workers. In Iraq, at least, Christians, both native and foreign, have freedom of worship.
Although most Muslims condemn Saddam Hussein's invasion, I am afraid that his remarks, which I heard over Baghdad radio, will find widespread sympathy, namely that Muslims, whatever their country, are true brothers to one another, while the Americans are intruders in alliance with corrupt Arab leaders, and are the first infidel army to enter Arabia since the time of Muhammad, 1400 years ago, polluting the sacred land. I do not want to comment here whether our forces should be in Arabia or not, but to point out the disdain many Muslims instinctively have for Christians.
Let us turn to the question of how we as Christians should relate to Muslims. First, we love them. Secondly, as part of firm love, we resist, with all possible avoidance of violence, any megalomanic trampling of human rights, including religious freedom. Thirdly, we affirm and support every aspiration for justice (for instance, the right of Palestinians to a homeland), and every sign of goodness and faith in God, cooperating in every worthwhile project, at the same time hoping and praying to lead them to explicit faith in Jesus, the divine Savior. Fourthly, we examine ourselves in comparison with Muslims, whether we neglect daily prayer, whether we are ashamed to make the sign of the cross in public, or be counted as Catholics when our faith is mocked.
I think that worldwide, Muslims are the greatest alien group the Church has to deal with. They too are our brothers. Whether hard to get along with or easy, we cannot ignore them, and must show them an appropriate expression of love.