c. 1998 Religion News Service

CANTERBURY, England _ Sharp contrasts in the relations between Christians and Muslims in different countries were highlighted Monday (July 27) when the Lambeth Conference took up the question of Muslim-Christian relations at a plenary session of the three-week gathering of Anglican prelates.”The one reality is that both Islam and Christianity are missionary religions, both are operating and in Africa and East Asia, so the potential for conflict between them is great _ but the need for getting along is even greater,”said Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, a native of Pakistan who now heads the diocese of Rochester, England, and coordinator of the session.

The session was not a policy-making meeting but several resolutions touching on the topic are expected to come before the body of 735 bishops before they adjourn Aug. 8.

For example, Nazir-Ali said he wants to see the resolution on Iran”to be one that encourages the opening up of Iran, not one that is condemnatory. We want to support those moderate Muslims who are working to open up the country. There is a struggle there that could go either way.” Speaking before the session began, Nazir-Ali said he hoped it would provide prelates with a sense of the complexity of Christian-Muslim relations as they are played out around the world.

And it did.

On the one hand, Bishop Tilewa Johnson of Gambia painted a picture of happy coexistence in a country that is 95 percent Muslim and only 3 percent Christian.

Christians and Muslims attend each other’s weddings and funerals, Christian-Muslim marriages take place, Muslims attend Christian schools _ sometimes even winning prizes for Bible study _ and leaders of the two faiths have at times joined together to issue statements on national questions, said Johnson.”Although the situation is one of religious tolerance and coexistence, I must also emphasize that this does not imply any degree of compromise on the part of the church,”he said. Christians proclaim the gospel leaving the sensitive issue of conversion to the Holy Spirit and reject aggressive evangelism, he added.

On the other hand, Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon of Kaduna, Nigeria, said that in the northern part of his country, where Muslims comprise 85 percent to 90 percent of the population, Christians have no rights: There is no provision for Christian education in state schools, the public proclamation of the gospel is prohibited, and intermarriage is forbidden except in cases where a Christian woman’s conversion to Islam might be expected. And, while there is a half-hour Christian program on television once a week, somehow the electricity fails when it comes on.

Nor are things much better in the middle part of Nigeria, where Christians and Muslims are more evenly balanced, he said.

Bishop Alexander Malik of Lahore, Pakistan, where blasphemy laws have led to Christians being arrested and persecuted, said that before the laws were introduced in the 1980s the two faiths lived together relatively peacefully.

Indeed, he said, one of the concerns of the founding fathers of Pakistan was that no one should experience the discrimination that had led India’s Muslims to call for the setting up of a separate Muslim state.

But he argued that militancy is”part and parcel of the spirit of Islam”and Islam is not only a religious but also a political ideology.

But Nazir-Ali said the Pakistani blasphemy law”is, in fact, profoundly un-Islamic. In the Koran there is no punishment on Earth for apostasy, nor for blasphemy. The prophet himself forgave those who insulted him. We must continue to campaign for its repeal.” A even more complex picture was painted by bishops from the Middle East.”Our experience with Islam has been one of mutual respect and mutual trust,”said Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal of Jerusalem, an Arab Palestinian Christian. He said Islamic fundamentalism causes more harm to Islam and Muslims than it does to outsiders.

Bishop Ghais Abdel of Egypt said Christians in his country sometimes encounter difficulties but do not suffer persecution and in Tripoli _ Libya forms part of his diocese _ the local Muslims had helped the local Anglican community get a church.

In England, said Bishop David Smith of Bradford, there has been growing cooperation in his city between church leaders and the local Muslim minority.

He noted that following a visit he and a local Muslim leader paid to Pakistan last October, city politicians wrote to Pakistani government leaders expressing their concern and distress at the misuse of the blasphemy laws.

DEA END NOWELL