Scholars to Ponder Implications of Inter-Faith History

By Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

Jordan's Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in Amman will hold its first international workshop from Aug. 20 to 24 on "Muslim and Christian Perceptions of Each Other: The Historical Record." Similar scholarly conferences have been sponsored annually by Crown Prince Hassan, in London and Amman. These led to the establishment in 1994 of the Institute with a full-time director, Dr. Kamal Salibi, a noted Lebanese Christian historian. This step was designed to guarantee and amplify the continuity of such efforts in and through a single center.

At this year's workshop, authorities from Canada, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Spain, Syria, the U.K. and the U.S. will examine Christian and Muslim perceptions of each other over the centuries and their pertinence to the present scene. The full roster and other details may be secured from Dr. Salibi at the Institute, P.O. Box 830562, Amman, Jordan 11183; phone 962-6/618051; fax 962-6/618053.

Wadi' Z. Haddad of Hartford Seminary will give the opening paper—on the 10th century views of Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Mawadi regarding the role and status of Christians and Jews under Sunni caliphs and sultans. Charles Kimball of Furman University will report to the concluding session on "The 1994 Southern Baptist 'Muslim Awareness' Conference." In between, 12 other participants from U.S. institutions are scheduled to present aspects of the intervening centuries. They are:

Harrison G. Griffith (Catholic University of America) on "Islam in the Summa Theologica Arabica: a view from the Melchite community in the early Abbasid period" (post-758).

Jane Smith (Iliff School of Theology) on "French Christian narratives concerning Mohammed and the religion of Islam from the 11th to the 18th centuries."

Ahmad Dallal (Yale) on "17th and 18th century legal and theological debates on the relationship between Muslims and Christians."

Rifat Hassan (Louisville University) on a Persian/Iranian theme to be announced.

Yvonne Haddad (University of Massachussets) on "Islamist depictions of Islam in the 20th century: the reconstruction of The Other."

Abdul Aziz Sachedina (University of Virginia) on "Political implications of the Islamic notion of 'supersession' as reflected in Islamic jurisprudence."

John Voll (University of New Hampshire) on "Perceptions of necessary conflict: Muslim-Christian relations in the modern era."

Sulayman S. Nyang (Howard University) on "Muslim-Christian relations in the U.S.A."

Gerard Bowering (Yale) on "Muslim and Christian perceptions of times."

John Esposito (Georgetown University) on "Contemporary images of Islam and the West: dialogue or confrontation?"

Willem Bijlefeld (Hartford Seminary) on "A period of transition: Western Christian perceptions of Islam, 1900-1960."

Marston Speight (Hartford) on "The things of Caesar and the things of God (Mark 12:13-17) and the Muslim-Christian encounter."

U.S., Palestinian Prelates Speak Up

The present-day pertinence of the aims and contexts of the seminar described above has recently been highlighted by statements by Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the U.S. Episcopal Church and by Palestinian Roman Catholic Archbishop and Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem. On May 19, in harmony with related stances of other major American Christian denominations, Browning released the following official statement on the U.S. veto of the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of Israel's expropriation of non-Jewish property:

"I am deeply disappointed, and even ashamed, that our country would so use its veto in the United Nations Security Council and, thereby, give legitimacy to the state of Israel's continuing illegal expropriation of land in East Jerusalem. This action leads to several troubling conclusions:

"The integrity of the United States as an honest and fair sponsor in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is called into question. If the United States is a guardian of the peace process, as the Administration claims, it cannot cast a blind eye to an action by Israel to prejudice the negotiations over the status of Jerusalem.

"This action fuels extremism among Palestinians and greatly weakens the negotiating process. Israel's defiant expropriation of land and the refusal of the U.S. to challenge it at the Security Council risks being followed by acts of violence....

"I call upon President Clinton, as a steward of the peace process, to condemn the prejudicial expropriation of land by the Israeli government and to use the Administration's influence to prevent the issue of Jerusalem from being settled by the force of events or the creation of facts on the ground. I also ask the President to convene immediately a meeting of Christian leaders to hear our plea for a return to an honorable U.S. role that will assure justice for both Palestinians and Israelis."

Archbishop Sabbah, according to the May 27 Chicago Sun-Times, told reporters covering his visit to the Arab-American Church of Our Lady of Lebanon in suburban Hillside, that many of his former parishioners there and elsewhere would like to return permanently to their Jerusalem homes "if the political situation is stabilized." As with Bishop Browning's statement, these words are not just his own personal statement but reflect the hopes, experience and convictions of ecclesiastical colleagues as well.

The archbishop is also one of four co-presidents of the Middle East Council of Churches. The other three are Coptic Pope Shenouda III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Parthenios, and Evangelical Rev. Dr. Salim Sahiouny.

Muslims and Christians Probe for Peace With Justice in Jerusalem

Writing from Jerusalem in the May 9 issue of the Ecumenical News International Bulletin of Geneva, Switzerland, columnist Martin Marty of the Christian Century reported on a significant meeting that seems to have escaped the attention of other media: Believing that the future of Jerusalem is central to any Middle East peacemaking, and that it calls for serious interpersonal and intercultural preparatory exchanges, the Al-Liqa Center for Religious and Heritage Studies in the Holy Land held a day-long seminar at the Notre Dame Center just outside the Old City walls.

Muslim and Christian leaders were brought in to discuss with foreign correspondents, representatives of governments and U.N.-accredited non-governmental organizations aspects of life—and prospects for peace—under Israeli occupation. Together they described how threatening to the survival of non-Jewish religious institutions are the tight travel restrictions imposed by Israel on native Gentiles since March 30, 1993.

Archbishop Lutfi Laham, Greek Catholic patriarchal vicar in Jerusalem, told attendees that, even in Holy Week and on Easter, members of his church had been unable to reach their cathedral because of the "complete closure" imposed by Israeli military officials. "This contempt for Christians and Muslims, the contrived 'Judaization' of Jerusalem and the building of illegal settlements in and around that city," he added, "are not in the service of the peace process, but are rather aborting it." Thiab Ayoush of the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs commented that "the Archbishop speaks for Muslims as well as Christians."

Rafiq Khoury of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem said that Christians are concerned not only for religious freedom but also for equal justice and inclusive human rights. After describing his own lifetime of "personal and intimate" relationship with Jerusalem, he noted that he no longer is free to move between his parish and his office in the Patriarchate without special permission, which sometimes takes days to arrange.

President Sari Nusseibeh of Al Quds Islamic University proposed at the meeting that Jerusalem remain an undivided city serving as the capital of both Israel and Palestine. He and Hanan Ashrawi, Eastern Orthodox former spokeswoman for the Palestinian negotiating team and author of This Side of Peace (see AET Book Club, page 59), both referred to United Nations resolutions that affirm Jerusalem as "corpus separatum," a distinct entity, independent of national politics and responsible to humanity through the U.N.

Ashrawi added, "God made Jerusalem holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians." She saw in this a call for all three faiths to join in giving it the pluralistic harmony God intended for it.

Armenians Honor Tragic Anniversary

One of the first public responsibilities of Karekin Sarkissian as newly elected Supreme Catholicos (global prelate) of the Armenian Orthodox Church concerned the April 24 80th anniversary of the disastrous mass expulsion of Armenians from Ottoman Turkey. In what survivor families have referred to as The Massacre, The Genocide or The Holocaust, up to 1.5 million died, including expellees who perished from starvation and thirst as they crossed parched terrain on foot to reach more hospitable territory.

To conduct an appropriate memorial service, Karekin II, as he is now known, journeyed to Yerevan, capital of (Eastern) Armenia since its 1991 separation from the former Soviet Union. There, with President Levon Ter-Petrosian and Armenians from churches around the world claiming some six million adherents, he underscored the tradition of remembering past sufferings in such a way as to promote a sensitized commitment to justice, peace and reconciliation. Continuing to pursue these goals, he emphasized, is the most appropriate way to honor the Armenian martyrs. Riad Jarjour, Jean Fischer and Konrad Reiser, general secretaries of, respectively, the Middle East, the European and World Councils of Churches, renewed their endorsement of this stand, of which Karekin's career has been an embodiment.

As a pastor, he ministered to the needs of his fellow exiles who had found refuge in that portion of Western Syria which, in 1926, became the Republic of Lebanon. Later as head of the Catholicosate-in-exile of Cilicia (founded 1293), with headquarters in Antellias on the edge of Beirut, he expanded that ministry and, at the same time, added significant support and leadership to interchurch endeavors for peace with justice at home and abroad. In this he feels a strong sense of his people's continuity.

Armenia, which once stretched from the Black and Caspian Seas to the Mediterranean, was, in 301 ad, the first nation ever to become officially Christian. One Gregory, honored as "Saint" and remembered as "The Illuminator," a remarkably wise, sensitive and competent bishop, had, with his contagious faith, won the hearts of his once-polytheistic fellow-countrymen and their king, Tiridates III. The resultant unique development of combined religious loyalties and ethnic solidarity has persisted through triumphs and vicissitudes, despite periods of quarrelsome political leadership and prolonged persecution by occupiers.

In recent centuries, Czarist Russia (1828) and Ottoman Turkey (1405) became the conquerors of adjacent eastern and western portions of Armenia. When World War I exploded, with Turkey and Russia in opposite military camps, the Armenians under both regimes became unwarrantedly suspect as collaborators with the enemy. Racist, chauvinist Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire branded their Armenian fellow-countrymen as a potential fifth column and as a "national security" measure, slaughtered or routed them out of their homes. This and the resultant trail of blood and tears reflect behavior patterns far too familiar in historical parallels from other areas and eras. Karekin II's weight will be against future repetitions on any scale—between whomever—wherever.

Peacemaking Conference Salutes U.N.'s 50th, Ponders Palestine

The annual August Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference traditionally held in Montreat, N.C., will move from that idyllic Appalachian setting this year to the bustling Hempstead, Long Island, campus of Hofstra University. The change of location will enable the 1,500 participants to use the added fifth day of the normally four-day conference to take advantage of special opportunities provided in conection with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

Multiple small group discussions and interviews to choose from will be offered at embassies, in U.N. offices and the Church Center for the United Nations. There will be similar opportunities for contacts with NGOs (non-governmental organizations accredited to the U.N.), including their own and other denominational and ecumenical enterprises.

Among the 80 three-day workshops will be the traditional one concentrating on the U.N.'s historically most stubborn and time-consuming problem: Israel/Palestine and the search for a peacemaking procedure with which all parties are willing to become seriously and constructively involved. Rev. Walter Owensby, who heads the Washington office through which Presbyterians collaborate with the Protestant/Catholic/Unitarian joint Churches for Middle East Peace (C-MEP), will be the instructor and facilitator of studies of the "Dynamic of Change in Palestine and Israel." He will be concentrating on religious, social and political responses to recent peace initiatives and their challenges to the Christian communities in the Middle East and abroad. Other church bodies associated with C-MEP are taking "U.N.-50" equally seriously in their own ways.

Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, D.D., retired Associate Executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in ecumenical and peace-making activities.