OPINION: Muslim-Christian Dialogue is Noble and Urgent for Africa

By Henry Makori

Catholic bishops and other officials from sub-Saharan Africa met in Nairobi last week to evaluate the Church’s progress in its relations with other religions, especially Islam. The conference, opened by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Vatican, took place against a backdrop of growing realization of the need for better understanding and collaboration between Muslims and Christians.

As Cardinal Tauran noted, in a world shrunk by advanced communications technologies and travel (the global village), it is “unrealistic and impossible to live as if people of other religions and philosophies do not exist.” Instead, people should learn to “live harmoniously and work together in a religiously mixed society.”

This is a noble and urgent idea in Africa where religious parochialism is a real threat to peace. Some upstart Muslim and Christian preachers still deliver sermons peppered with rancour. Former President Fredrick Chiluba wanted to make Zambia a Christian nation by law. Nigeria’s Umaru Yar’Adua recently provoked Christian protests by his attempts to “smuggle” the nation into the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). And there is Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi who last year described Islam as the only true religion for all humanity, while questioning the death of Jesus on the Cross. This March, he rubbished the Bible as a forgery.

Objective differences in belief are the major cause of division. But fanaticism is largely responsible for the failure of Christian-Muslim relations to mature from strained co-existence characterised by fear and suspicion to genuine mutual respect marked by empathy and active solidarity. That explains the spectre of inter-religious violence in countries like Nigeria and unconscionable state intolerance of Christianity in majority Muslim North Africa.

Even at the best of times, Christianity is generally perceived among Muslims as part of the “decadent West”. On the other hand, Christian popular opinion on Islam, “a religion of moderation and peaceful co-existence”, continues to be coloured by the West’s war on terrorism. Not long ago at a news conference in Nairobi, a reporter asked a Muslim cleric why the religion bred terrorists. “Most gangsters arrested in Kenya are likely to be from a certain ethnic community. Does it mean the community abets violent crime?” the cleric retorted.

Deep-seated religious biases poison human relations, which necessitates dialogue between Africa’s two largest faiths. Such dialogue, the Catholic bishops of West Africa said at a meeting on the issue last October, enables the different believers to celebrate their commonalities, but also offers them an opportunity to listen to “stories and experiences replete with painful memories of controversy and rift that have conditioned the present.”

Through such exchange, Christians and Muslims will rediscover within their respective faiths the call to reach out to others in love. True inter-religious dialogue is not a ruse to convert the other, but honest bridge-building, said Cardinal Tauran. “It includes creating harmony in the society, encouraging development of friendship and a spirit of tolerance. But it goes beyond the niceties of polite conversation which encourages people to stay where they are and avoid talking about the grey areas of disagreement. It is a journey in search of the truth.”

[Henry Makori is the CISA Editor]