It's been a tough few weeks for the Islamic community in Britain as the Sudanese teddy bear incident raged and the spectre of freedom to convert from Islam once again has come to the fore. Ruth Gledhill, the Times' correspondent, has been covering these issues and it has been dismaying to me to see the venom that has been generated by us good old Christian folk. As I've said before, we should not duck out of the truth-telling in our engagement with other faiths, speaking out against wrong and injustice. What perturbs me, though, is the tendency to make sweeping judgments about whole groups of people and foreclosing what "the other" can be to us.
I'd like to pose a question to some of those that have posted so liberally about the wrongs of Islam: is it inevitable that a Muslim be violent, cruel and sexist? Now I can answer a quick and categorical "no" to that question. I answer from experience but I also answer from within my own Christian tradition. Not one person in this world is "inevitably" always going to be wrong. There is something about the Christian hope that I hold to that will see the good, see signs of grace in all places and in all people. If Christmas means anything, it's about God surprising us in the most unexpected places. Isn't that what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is all about?
So, as gently as I can, I'd like to suggest that words like "they", "always", "all", "must" in connection with negative behaviour from Muslims be deleted. The added incentive might be a slightly less gentle reminder to some Christian self-reflection. Here's another question: is it inevitable that Christians be colonial, paternalistic and compromised by power? I answer again from my own experience and from the trajectory of my Christian hope an unequivocal "no". However, my recognition of those traits in myself and in the church ought to drive me to humility as I bring challenges to my neighbours, of whatever faith.
A bishop back in the early 20th Century said, "how can we sing our love song to Jesus without telling dirty stories about the other?". More recently, Vaclav Havel said, "There is only one way to strive for decency, reason, responsibility, sincerity, civility and tolerance and that is decently, reasonably, responsibly, sincerely, civilly and tolerantly". In our truth-telling, in our necessarily robust engagement in the public arena, guard us Lord from falling into sin.
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