Saturday, August 29, 1998

It's time to break down walls of misunderstanding between Christians, Muslims

By Tom Schaefer

Knight Ridder Newspapers

When bombs were set off earlier this month in Kenya and Tanzania, killing more than 250 people and injuring at least 5,500, terrorism and Islam were once again linked in the minds of many.

Wrongly linked.

The fact is, groups that espouse violence and claim to be following the will of God do not define the essence of religion.

They never have.

That's why it's important to break down walls of misunderstanding, especially between Muslims and Christians, that for so long have seemed immovable.

"The only way to remedy that is to have people sit down and talk," said Dawood Ahmed, president of the Islamic Society of Wichita.

To encourage such discussion, the Islamic Society mailed letters this week to more than 1,000 churches, other religious groups, colleges and schools in the Wichita area, asking to meet with anyone willing to discuss the religion of Islam.

"Our responsibility is to inform people about our lives," Ahmed said. "We want to be there to talk with them."

The good news is that efforts at dialogue aren't new in this community. For years, Inter-Faith Ministries of Wichita has brought together people of different faiths, seeking to foster understanding and cooperation.

"I do think there is an openness among congregations to learn about other faiths and how God reacts and works in their lives," said the Rev. Sam Muyskens, executive director of Inter-Faith.

In November, Inter-Faith will host its fifth annual Festival of the Family at City Hall, and representatives of various religions will participate.

Yet, in a community with more than 400 Christian congregations, it's clear that a lot of work still needs to be done. And Christians, who are in the majority, need to take the initiative.

As leader of the largest and oldest inter-religious organization in the city, Muyskens knows the task is challenging.

"We do have a community here that does have a hard time dealing with the idea that people perceive God in different ways than they do," he said.

In many respects, efforts in other parts of the country to change prejudiced attitudes toward Muslims is just as spotty, said a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C.

"We're seeing a trend towards generalizations," said Ibrahim Hooper of the council.

"Where we wouldn't allow the IRA to define Catholicism, and we wouldn't allow the massacre in a mosque by a Jewish man in Hebron to define what Judaism is, people are willing to say those acts of violence (in Kenya and Tanzania) are what Islam is."

And the results are predictable. This week, an e-mail was sent to an Islamic organization in San Francisco, Hooper said, that branded all Muslims as murderers because of the bombings in Africa. Such outright hatred, he added, is more often found where Muslims are isolated and have little interaction with non-Muslims.

That's why the council encourages Muslims to get involved in inter-faith discussions, have open houses at mosques and set up seminars on Muslims beliefs, he said.

"There are pockets of progress," he said, "but there's still a lot of work to be done."

To help educate others about Islamic beliefs and practices, the council provides a free brochure titled "Welcome to Our Mosque." Copies can be ordered through the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 1050 17th Street N.W., Suite 490, Washington, D.C. 20036.

That's a start, but there's more that people can do:

Write to the Council on American-Muslim Relations, and request the brochure, for an overview of Muslim beliefs and practices. And use it as a starting point for personal understanding.

Read one of several books ("Islam and the Destiny of Man" by Charles Le Gai Eaton"; "Islam and the Muslim Community" by Frederick Denny; or "What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims" by Suzanne Haneef) for more background on the history and teachings of Islam.

Arrange for a group in your church or other organization to meet with local Muslims.

It's time for Christians, as well as others who are not Muslim, to take the first step to end centuries of suspicion and hatred.

Perhaps through such efforts, walls of misunderstanding, so rigidly in place, will begin to crumble.

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(Tom Schaefer writes about religion and ethics for the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle. Write to him at the Wichita Eagle, P.O. Box 820, Wichita, KS 67201, or send e-mail to tschaefer(at)wichitaeagle.com )

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(c) 1998, The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.).

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