::David F. Dawes ::May/June 2002

After September 11, people are finding ways to bridge centuries of misunderstanding

In the church hall, darting children laugh and yell to friends. Quick interchanges burst from clusters of young adults. Nearby, murmurs arise from a group of elderly people enjoying a special opportunity to socialize.

Soon the evening’s English lesson starts. Some continue chatting; but most of the 50 or so present concentrate on trying to comprehend the meaning of North American slang terms such as “off the top of your head.” Later, along with the teacher, they read a grade 5-level passage from the Gospel of Matthew, learning some English and listening attentively as the teacher explains Christian faith and doctrine at appropriate points in the text.

The night ends with the monthly music event. The students respond enthusiastically to the worship songs played by a Canadian group. Then musicians among the students get out their own instruments: a clarinet, drums, and a four-string, long-necked lute-like instrument. Then they jam, sometimes with the worship team.

These sounds can be heard at many of the weekly gatherings where Canadian Christians offer hospitality and lessons in life skills to refugees. What sets this gathering apart is the fact that the majority of the students are Muslims. For two years, many of these Muslims from the former Yugoslavia have regularly attended the meetings sponsored by Friends, a ministry to Albanian Kosovar immigrants in Surrey, B.C.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the need for this type of relation building has become even more apparent. Though some non-Muslims and Muslims in Canada have held fast to negative stereotypes, many more, including Christians, have sought to bridge the divide between Islam and Christianity.

Bob Granholm, who heads Friends, is one of a small group of Canadian Christians who, in the past several years, have made concerted efforts to reach out to some of the estimated 700,000 Muslims in Canada. He has seen changes in Muslim immigrants’ attitudes to Christians. Granholm, who has ministered to Muslims for 15 years, is encouraged by what he sees as a greater openness to the gospel.

“They ask a lot of questions,” he says. “Some are surprised to learn that Jesus was Jewish. Some think the New Testament was a book written by Jesus. A lot of them ask, ‘How do I change religions?’ Everyone wants a copy of the Jesus video in their language.” The Jesus film, produced by Campus Crusade for Christ, depicts Jesus’ life, using dialogue mainly from the Book of Luke.

Others have noticed this openness. “I believe the aftermath of 9-11 has been positive for spreading the gospel among Muslims,” says Tom Tan, a pastor with Coquitlam Alliance Church in B.C. Tan’s church began ESL classes for Afghans and Iranians early last year-and after September 11 the number of students almost doubled. Many Muslims, he says, “were drawn to the church because they want to have good Christian friends.”

In the past several months his horizons have expanded considerably. “Through the ESL classes, I managed to connect with an Afghan tribal leader,” he said. Last October the Afghani invited Tan to send Christians to work in community development in his village. “I could not dream of church planting among Afghans . . . before 9-11. But now there are plans for me to travel to Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan,” said Tan.

Seervan Dowlati, a one-time Muslim who now pastors Vancouver Persian Church, concurs. “We have many Muslims who are calling and asking us to pray for them.”

The interest goes both ways. “Among Christians,” asserts James Beverley, a professor with Tyndale Seminary in Ontario who has written on Islam, “there’ s now an interest in understanding Islam that has never [existed] before in Western history.”

The Divide

Still, many bridges remain to be built-as the recent rise in hate crimes confirms.

According to a report issued by the Toronto police force in late February, hate crimes in Canada during 2001 showed a 66 percent increase over the previous year-due primarily to attacks against Muslims following September 11.

“There have been far too many incidents of harassment,” declares Alia Hogben, of the Ontario-based Canadian Council of Muslim Women. “On the other hand,” she adds, “we have been inundated since September 11 with wonderful expressions of concern by our Christian neighbours and friends.”

Some Canadian Muslims cite misrepresentation as a problem. “Many Christians’ only knowledge about Islam comes from the media,” says Ali Assaf, a spokesperson for the Canadian Islamic Centre in Edmonton. “They seem to think that Muslims do not believe in God, nor in the prophets common to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.” He exhorts Christians to think for themselves. “Please find out the truth about Islam and Muslims before drawing up a judgment.”

“There are definitely many misperceptions,” says Hogben “such as that Islam is a backward religion, belonging to the Middle Ages-[and] that ‘Allah’ means some other God, and not just the one God of all beings. Sadly, most of these [ideas] started with the first contacts between Muslims and Christians during the Crusades.”

Muslims, too, are still influenced by the Crusades. Don Little, Ontario-based director of Arab World Ministries, says that, although September 11 made some Muslims ask hard questions about Islam, the war in Afghanistan confirmed others in “their view of Christians as colonialists and oppressors.”

Some Christians continue to perpetuate ideas that many Muslims find offensive. On his web site, American Robert Morey, author of Islamic Invasion and head of the Faith Defenders apologetics ministry, invites Christians to join a spiritual and intellectual “Holy Crusade” against Islam. He dismisses the entire religion as “the root of terrorism.”

While not using Morey’s inflammatory rhetoric, some Canadian Christians have made similar assumptions. According to a Christian Week article written by John Azumah, a pastor with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Islamic extremists “are simply implementing the fundamentals of Islam and taking official Islamic teachings to their logical conclusions.”

Others, such as Arab World Ministries’ Abe Wiebe, though equally critical of Islam, have been more balanced. He asserts that Islam’s “unifying purpose is to bring the whole of humanity under the banner of the Crescent [by] all means, including violence, terrorism and war if necessary.” However, he conceds that 85 percent of Muslims “practise a temperate form of Islam.”

Muslims’ perceptions of Christians are not always accurate. Despite overwhelming evidence that many contemporary North Americans and Europeans do not support or respect Christian faith, some Muslims still insist on identifying Christianity with the actions of the entire Western world-largely because of the West’s assault on Islam during the Crusades.

This perspective is exemplified in some of the ideas of radical Islamic leader Osama bin Laden. In a November statement translated by the BBC, bin Laden referred to “the people of the West, who are the crusaders.” Their leaders, he said, are waging “the most ferocious, serious, and violent Crusade campaign against Islam ever since the message was revealed to Muhammad.”

Mutual misunderstandings

The major source of misunderstanding for Christians and other non-Muslims has arisen from a view that Islam is a monolith. Now many Canadians are aware that the Islamic world is becoming increasingly polarized.

While evidence indicates that alleged Islamic terrorists such as Ahmed Ressam have conducted activities in Canada, moderate Canadian Muslims have been quick to repudiate extremist interpretations of their faith.

The September 11 terrorists, says Saleem Aneen Ganam, director of the Islamic Awareness Foundation in Edmonton, committed “an abhorrent thing.” Muslims, he insists, “don’t attack innocent people” or commit suicide. The terrorists, says Hogben, were “politicizing Islam.”

At a meeting held by Friends in Surrey soon after the terrorist attacks, several Muslims spoke. Some, Granholm says, “were infuriated that the terrorism had been perpetrated in the name of Islam.”

“Muslims are in the midst of a struggle for the soul of Islam,” wrote James Beverley in a January Christianity Today cover story. As evidence, he cited Muslim intellectual Kanan Makiya, who dismissed bin Laden and his ilk as “Islam’s ‘Ku Klux Klan.’ “

“The vast majority of Muslims,” wrote Beverley in his recent book, Understanding Islam, “believe that Osama bin Laden . . . has disgraced Islam.” However, Muslim extremists like bin Laden, he asserted, “view their actions as a true Jihad or ‘holy war’ against infidels and the enemies of Islam . . . We are left, then, with a world of two Islams.” He concluded: “There is an Islam of peace. It is in the millions of Muslims who live every day in love and gentleness.”

Conservative Christian columnists Ted and Virginia Byfield expressed a similar view. “Which is the real face of Islam?” they asked in their Report column. “Is it the terrorist or that nice guy next door?” They concluded that some Muslims “unquestionably reflect the peace of soul that can come only from God.”

The mass media, says Hogben, need to play a role in counteracting the perception of all Muslims as potential terrorists. “They could look for moderates instead of the [extremists], and let moderates have a voice.”

Assaf, however, believes things are improving. “Especially after September 11, there has been a greater deal of interaction and eagerness to come to common ground.”

Cultivating commonality

Canadian Muslims and Christians have proven they can cooperate on issues of mutual concern. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, for example, has worked with Islamic groups on court cases involving the protection of marriage. Exchanges of ideas between the faiths have created understanding. “I’ve spoken to dozens of churches over many years about Islam,” says Ganam of the Islamic Awareness Foundation. “It’s when you get to know each other that much of the animosity would be wiped away.”

In December, Christians and Muslims spent a day at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, fasting and praying to protest both Islamic terrorism and the war in Afghanistan. In other cases, Muslim and Christian organizations have jointly sponsored social activities, lectures, and humanitarian efforts for Afghan refugees.

Yet some evangelicals, notes Don Joshua, Canadian director of Middle East Christian Outreach, believe the new rapprochement may be going too far. “The Anglican Diocese of Toronto also has fellowship with the Muslim community in Toronto . . . St. James Anglican Cathedral opened up its basement for Friday prayers for Muslims [to use], much to the consternation of conservative Christians.” He believes Muslims can counter such reactions by demonstrating “the kindness, tolerance and love that are an integral part of Islam.”

Ali Assaf urges, “Let’s live together in peace and harmony, regardless of our personal beliefs.”

Building closer ties

Many Christians echo this call for peaceful approaches. The new Canadian social landscape, says Floyd Grunau of Alliance Biblical Seminary in Toronto, “has given us opportunities to affirm the love we have in Christ for [Muslims].”

“I have met many Muslims who are open to the biblical view of Jesus,” says Reda Hanna, pastor of the Arabic Evangelical Church in New Westminster, B.C. “Unfortunately,” he adds, “not many Christians make an effort to be friends with Muslims.”

The most effective way to evangelize Muslims, says Bob Granholm, is “through acts of kindness, a demonstrably righteous life, and a transparent faith.”

“Christians who associate with Muslims,” agrees Joshua, “should live their lives so that Muslims are attracted to their faith without persuasion.”

“Talk to them without criticizing Islam,” says Dowlati. “Simply talk to them about Jesus, and the ways He loved people and forgave sinners.”

“They are taught that the gospels are, to some extent, the word of God,” says Beverley. “I think that if they read the gospels for themselves, they’ ll be amazed at who Jesus is.”

He hastens to add: “Being a loving Christian is more important than winning arguments.”

David F. Dawes lives in Vancouver and is an associate editor of BC Christian News.

http://www.faithtoday.ca/article_viewer.asp?Article_ID=37

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