Persecution of Christians in Muslim World Must End
By Akbar Ahmed and John Bryson Chane
Washington , DC
In this Christmas season which encourages us to think of Jesus, who is so highly revered and loved by both Christians and Muslims, it is ironically tragic to contemplate relations between Christians and Muslims today. The plight of the Christians in the Muslim world is of particular concern.
In Iraq, savage killings of Christians have led thousands to flee the country, in Egypt Christians are under severe pressure and siege, and in Pakistan, there are too many instances of Christians like Asia Bibi, a woman who is facing a death sentence under Pakistan's blasphemy laws for allegedly slandering the Prophet of Islam.
For both of us, a Muslim and a Christian, this violence is a matter of utmost gravity. One of us, Akbar Ahmed, was educated by Catholic priests at Burn Hall, in North Pakistan, and then Presbyterian teachers at Forman Christian College in Lahore and gratefully acknowledges the immeasurable debt he owes them, which he attempts to repay in promoting Christian-Muslim dialogue. The other is concerned both as a Bishop but also as someone passionately devoted to promoting good relations between Christians and Muslims.
We find that the situation has reached a breaking point due to the crisis in the Muslim world. Muslims feel that Islam is under siege by the West and seek to lash out at Christians, seeing an attack on them to be an attack on Israelis, US occupying troops in Iraq, or the intelligence agencies behind US drone strikes in Pakistan. But this targeting of innocent Christians is unforgivable and un-Islamic.
Since 9/11 we have been speaking out in support of interfaith dialogue and understand the deep bonds between Christianity and Islam. The Prophet named Christians, as he did the Jews, as “people of the book” to be respected. In Islam, Jesus embodies compassion and the love of God and is miraculously born of the Virgin Mary. Not only is Jesus mentioned in the Qur’an more often than the Prophet of Islam, but an entire chapter is devoted to the Virgin Mary. As no other figure in Islam Jesus can perform miracles, including giving sight to the blind, breathing life into a piece of clay, bringing the dead to life, and curing a leper (Qur’an 3:49). Prophet Muhammad himself said that there is no one closer to Jesus in love and reverence. Muslims will say that they cannot be a good Muslim without first being a good Jew and a good Christian.
Christians have always lived in Muslim lands; indeed Christianity is older than Islam in these areas. Christians living in the great societies of Islamic history including Muslim Spain and the Ottoman Empire largely lived in peace and security according to their own laws. Yet in the last few years the persecution of Christians has increased in scope and frequency. In Iraq the Christian population, one of the oldest in the world and said to date from just after the crucifixion of Jesus, has decreased from over one million before the US invasion to around 500,000 today. The Christians who have remained are subjected to pogroms and slaughter by Muslim groups who have committed to exterminating them. The UN has reported high numbers of Christian refugees fleeing Iraq in recent weeks, and it has been noted that the chaotic aftermath of America's invasion may result in what all other invaders, including the Mongols, had failed to accomplish, the elimination of Iraq's Christian population.
In Egypt, where Christians constitute ten percent of the population, Christian girls are being kidnapped by shadowy Muslim groups and lured into Muslim marriages, with the state looking the other way. Christians in Egypt have no problem converting to Islam, but if a Muslim wants to convert to Christianity, they are refused permission to register as Christians on their ID cards, where religion must be stated. Riots are common, and Egyptian Christians live in fear of their lives.
Asia Bibi's death sentence in Pakistan has gathered fierce support from certain Muslim groups, who are demanding the sentence be carried out. The blasphemy law is derived from laws passed during Pakistan's "Islamization" phase under President Zia Ul Haq, in which Islamic warriors were being trained to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It has constantly been misused by Pakistanis seeking to attack each other in local feuds, and in today's high anti-American atmosphere has increased pressure on the Christians ten-fold. Pakistani President Asif Zardari must pardon Asia Bibi immediately, and bring this disgraceful episode to a close.
With this in mind, it is impossible for Muslims to be anti-Christian. We are appalled by the persecution Christians are being subjected to and appeal to Muslims to look at their own faith for how they should treat Christians in their midst — we need true Islamic scholarship and learning, not ignorant people quoting holy texts out of context. Anger or frustration at the way the West is behaving in the Muslim world or at their own governments is no excuse for slaughtering and slandering Christians.
(Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University; The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane is the Episcopal Bishop of Washington)
