March 1989, Page 24

Religion and the Middle East

By the Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

Churchwide Study of the "World of Islam"

Annually, in conjunction with the National Council of Churches, the US Catholic Mission Association and its Canadian counterpart, Friendship Press, publish materials on two preselected themes for churchwide study. For the current year (through Lent, 1990), the focus is on "The Philippines" and "The World of Islam. " The latter theme is treated in three volumes.

Neighbors: Muslims in North America (112 pp., $5.95) consists of wideranging yet very personal interviews by Elias Mallon, coordinator of interfaith relations at the Greymoor Ecumenical Institute in New York. In the warmth of his friendly accounts of candid conversations with many Muslims, native and immigrant, stereotypes and their attendant suspicions evaporate. Instead one gains an appreciation of their contribution to the Americas as well as of their degree of global unity in faith.

God is One: The Way of Islam (144 pp., $5.95) is by R. Marston Speight. Before becoming the director of the National Council of Churches' Office on Christian-Muslim Relations, the author devoted 28 years to Methodist service in Algeria and Tunisia. While stressing the close theological and devotional similarities between Christianity and Islam, he also describes with emphatic accuracy the barriers to mutual understanding created by both. Experience, which includes participation in Muslim-Christian conferences in many nations, has enabled him to deal with straightforward sensitivity. His readers from both faiths will find themselves drawn appreciatively closer to each other by his facts and spirit.

For congregations planning adult or youth classes, One God, Two Faiths: When Christians and Muslims Meet by Sarah Klos (48 pp., $4.95) offers guidance, suggests participatory activities, and lists film and print resources for six group-study sessions, based on Speight's book. These stimulate exploration of Islamic history and beliefs and facilitate reciprocally enriching contacts in one's own community.

Regional, three-day summer training conferences for participants are a regular feature of these annual study programs. For schedules, write Friendship Press, 772 Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, NY 10115. The books may be ordered from Friendship Press Distribution Office, P.O. Box 37844, Cincinnati, OH 45222.

Kung Revisits Iranian Muslim Scholars

In 1984, the Iranian government invited eight West German intellectuals to meet with their counterparts in Teheran. In free, frank discussions they were to explore how their distinct, sometimes conflicting, worldviews could contribute jointly to mutual appreciation. Conceivably this, in turn, might stimulate constructive cooperation between the West and the Muslim Middle East.

Only one of the eight, Catholic theologian Hans Kung of Tuebingen, was ready to accept the concurrent risk of entering the Iran-Iraq war zone. His earlier, productive experience in interfaith—including Christian-Muslim—dialogue, however, led him to welcome the opportunity despite the dangers.

Once there, he found the Iranian philosophers, historians, jurists, and theologians he met with to be "open and objective." They were ready to study both the Qur'an and the Bible in the light of those Scriptures' ancient origins and present applicability amidst changed and changing circumstances. They were staunchly loyal to, but neither arrogant nor defensive about, their Muslim faith. They seemed pleased to find Kung similarly committed to Christianity.

On returning home, Kung did not report any significant changes of mind on either side, let alone tangible progress in problem solving. Still, he felt that an atmosphere had developed in which positive change and progress could, with patience, prosper.

Hence, late in 1988 when UN pressures on Iran and Iraq had finally facilitated peace between those exhausted combatants, Kung was recognize as a potential goodwill ambassador for healing some of the war's scars.

Those scars, West German Foreign Minister Genscher recognized, included economic, cultural, and political instability that might be most readily addressed in a framework of supportive international cooperation. With this in mind, Genscher took a planeload of his country's most appropriately specialized business and cultural leaders to Iran to exchange ideas.

Recognizing that "nothing much happens in Islamic countries without references being made to religion," he included in his delegation four top theologians with Kung as "dean." The mutual respect that had burgeoned in Kung's 1984 encounters carried over into the new setting. Reportedly, the German foursome and its score of Iranian interlocutors "maintained a high theological level" throughout four concentrated three-hour sessions in which "there was no confrontation."

Kung has been back in Tuebingen too briefly to produce a typically penetrating analysis of these recent events. From his interview with National Catholic reporter's Arlene Swindler, however, one gathers that the topics of discussion ranged from "revelation" and "Scriptural authority" to their bearing on treatment of dissidents and minorities, male/female freedoms and status, and human rights. Kung's "deep conviction that there can be no peace among nations without peace among religions," Swindler indicates, remains strong as ever.

Christian Palestinians on Videotapes

Lois Pinneo is an Episcopal priest and George Conklin a minister of the United Church of Christ. Both are professionally seasoned in creating educational materials that are as interesting as they are instructive. It was discerning of Bernadette Productions to invite them to combine their talents to make a film record of how Christians are faring in the Israeli-occupied territories. Resulting from their joint venture are two compelling 30-minute videocassettes: one on who the Palestinian Christians are, and the other on present-day Palestine as seen through native Christian eyes.

The producers' springboard for their production of "The Forgotten Faithful" was a statement by Palestinian Anglican Bishop Samir Kafity in Jerusalem: "Pilgrims and tourists come here from great distances," he noted, to see the stone reminders of past events of religious significance. Yet they "ignore that there are living stones ... the community of the Christian faith that has existed on these lands from the very, very beginning." You're unlikely ever again to ignore or forget that community's people after spending half an hour with them in the perceptive and compassionate company of Pinneo and Conklin.

The title for their other cassette, "Truth, Justice and Peace," is taken verbatim from an old Jewish Mishna. It is a favorite quotation of West Bank human rights activist Jonathan Kuttab who, interviewed on this videotape, stresses the importance of the order in which those words occur. Kuttab, the son of a Palestinian Protestant pastor, says, "Unless we are brave enough to face the truth about the situation .... we cannot hope for justice and peace. And unless we, both Palestinians and Israelis, are willing to take the demands of justice seriously we cannot hope for peace."

The scenes portrayed and the individuals interviewed in these cassettes make the viewer aware of both the urgency and complexity of responding to their challenge. They also reveal the humanity of the people involved in the on-the-spot struggle to do so.

You may get descriptive folders or order cassettes (at $34.95 each, shipping included) from the Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation, 3379 Peachtree Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30326. Or phone Elaine at 1-800-272-5484.

The Reverend L. Humphrey Walz D.D., retired associate executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in denominational and ecumenical peacemaking movements.