A new factor that emerged
forcefully during the Synod is that Christians are not called to fight
against Islam.
On the contrary, the interventions by Synod Fathers and
Muslim guests expressed the need to work together to stop extremism and
ensure full citizenship for Christians in Middle Eastern societies.
We can say that the central idea that emerged in the
first week of the synod is the task of helping Christians to live in the
East, where Christianity was born, but where it is now a minority.
1. Tolerance and discrimination
The biggest problem affecting all countries is that
Christians - slowly or suddenly – are emigrating, firstly for political
reasons, then economic reasons and more often for reasons specific to
religious persecution. In some countries, the continuing discrimination
against Christians also plays a role.
Discrimination is the result of the attitude of the
Muslim majority that pertains to all countries in the region. This
attitude on a national level relegates Christians to the role of
second-class citizens.
Muslims always say that Islam is tolerant. In a sense,
the statement is true: Christians and Jews are tolerated and have for
centuries lived alongside Muslims, in the Muslim empire. But Christians
no longer want to be tolerated; they want to be fully fledged citizens,
period! Islam was structured in legal and
organizational terms in the mid seventh to ninth century. At that time,
the concept of total equality between religions was not conceived in the
West or even among Christians.
The cuius regio eius religio reigned in Europe until 1600. We
must not therefore be surprised that the Muslim legal system, which
came into being no later that the ninth century, did not give legal
equality to Christians. This system considers Christians and Jews as
protected by the Muslim power in exchange for their submission and
becoming dhimmi. This system, for the time,
was not bad: it was the most tolerant of the time and had
already existed in the Greek and Persian world.
Among the Greeks, for
example, there were metochoi, those who live with us "in our house",
those who share our country. But then it was an ethno-cultural policy.
With Islam the same system is applied, but the method becomes religious.
Muslims (Persians, Arabs, Turks, Africans ...) are (or should be) all
the same, with the same rights, the non-Muslim believers (Jews and
Christians) can live with Islam, but under certain conditions,
non-believers (corresponding to the barbarians of the Greek world), can
not live with Muslims and should be banned from the city or have to
convert.
This system remained in place until the end of 1800's.
It's true that the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Medjid inaugurated his reign
with the famous paper, hatt-i sciarif di Gulhane proclaiming on
November 3, 1839 the equality of all subjects of the empire, whatever
their religion. It was one of the reforms (Tanzimat) to renew the
empire. But the people did not accept it and it was not applied.
The
concept of citizen (with equal rights and duties) as it emerged in the
West, has never been accepted. Even today in the Islamic system that
governs everything is sharia which is applied to varying degrees.
2. The debate on secular society
In Egypt's Constitution of May 22, 1980, the principle of
sharia was introduced in the second article, as the "main source" of
legislation. This introduces elements which do not grant full
citizenship to Christians.
What the Christians of the Middle East are asking is not
only to be treated well, but to be recognized as citizens with equal
rights, so that no religion has any privileges.
This is our concept of secular society.
In this regard, during the synod, several interventions criticized the expression "positive secularism" twice mentioned in the Instrumentum Laboris
(IL), also referring to Benedict XVI. The original text of the IL was
in Italian and French. The expression therefore indicates a corrective
element to the concept of European secularism, particularly its
neutrality without expressing hostility toward religion.
For Arabs, however, the word "secular" is unknown. It was translated for the first time in the 1800's, using the word 'almāniyyah,
which derives from the concept of "secularization."
But for Muslims
this concept evokes a reality similar to atheism. So when you use this
translation of "secular", there are misunderstandings. We must explain
that we are talking about a civil society that is neutral to, but not an
enemy of religion, one which recognizes all religions. And this
corresponds more to Eastern Christian and Muslim mentality: we do not
want the marginalization of religion, the total separation between
politics and religion, politics and ethics. This is what Muslims and
Eastern Christians criticize of the West. As such the Synod Fathers, then, ask for a society of believers, but one where all faiths are equally recognized.
3. Religious freedom for all
Thus, during the first week of the synod, the principle
of religious freedom was developed.
The desire to ask the States of the
Middle East to acknowledge the principle of total religious freedom.
This includes: the right to renounce a religion to adhere to a religion
or to change religion; the right to be atheist and the equal treatment
of religions in accordance with the UN Human Rights Charter.
This does not mean the cancellation of religion, but
giving it greater space so the religion does not come into conflict with
other laws of the State. For example, if sharia goes against some state
law, state law takes precedence.
In the name of Sharia for example,you
can not force anyone to fast during Ramadan, as is the case today in all
countries of the Arabian peninsula (Saudi, Arabia, Yemen, Gulf
countries) and also in Algeria, Morocco, etc..
4. The right to proclaim one’s faith
Another very important point in this debate is right
practice and proclaim one’s faith.
The proclamation of the gospel is an
obligation for Christians as it is for Muslims to proclaim Islam, but it
is almost forbidden to Christians everywhere, even in countries that
call themselves "secular," such as Turkey and Tunisia, where the state
provides every means to spread Islam and to carry out Da'wah, ie Islamic
propaganda.
If you convert to Christianity in secret, they let it lie,
but if one proclaims his new faith in public, they risk being expelled
or killed. Beyond Lebanon - the only exception - in other Arab
countries, those who convert will never find peace.
In Tunisia, an Egyptian priest was expelled for holding a
cultural encounter with young people and was accused of proselytizing;
preachers in Turkey were killed and the killers were half-heartedly
pursued by police, and they are two "secular and moderate” countries.
None of these governments order the killings, but they turn a blind eye
to them. Sometimes, it is the very parents or relatives of the converts
who carry out the murders.
Another new factor in the Synod is the realization that
the Eastern Churches immersed in a stalled evangelization for centuries -
have lost tehir sense of mission. Several synod fathers have said: "We
must recapture the sense of mission."
The fact that Christians are emigrating because of
Islamic pressure, has led the synod fathers to two conclusions: first,
that Islam is intolerant in itself, that it carries the seeds of
closure, and they have cited the appropriate Koranic verses to qualify
this. But this line is supported by a small group. The majority of
interventions however, pointed out that in Islam there is also a
tolerant tendency.
Many Muslims want to live in peace with Christians
and therefore the problem of intolerance is common to Christians and
Muslims. Extremism is fomented for reasons that are not religious, even
if it manifests itself with religious aspects.
There are fanatics who strive for the emigration of
Christians, condemning them as "Kafir" (infidel), but also condemning
Muslims who do not follow the strict orthodoxy advocated by them.
The fathers stressed that Christians and Muslims must
fight extremism that is based on religion. Muslims repeat that Islam is
the religion of the right medium (din al-Wasat). Christians must work together with the Muslims to elevate the level of society, making it more human.
The task of Christians is to raise the level of awareness
in society, a human, cultural but also religious commitment that
emphasizes forgiveness, peace, etc.. searching the Koran and the Bible
for everything which affirms this affinity of consciousness.
Moreover,
the principle of forgiveness is even in the Koran (albeit milder than in
the Gospel).
5. The intervention by Muhammad al-Sammak
This commitment to raise the values in Arab societies was
also the subject of an intervention by Lebanese Sunni Muslim, Muhammd
al-Sammak. He said that thanks to Christians, Muslim society has
increased its cultural level to make positive progress.
In his speech
(delivered in Arabic), he said:
"Two negative points demonstrate the problem faced by
Eastern Christians: The first point concerns the lack of respect for the
rights of fully equal citizenship when faced with the law in certain
countries. The second concerns the misunderstanding of the spirit of the
Islamic teachings, especially the part relative with Christians... "For
this, we are called upon, as Christians and Muslims, to work together
to transform these two negative elements into positive elements: in the
first place, through the respect for the bases and rules of citizenship
which accomplishes equality first in rights and then in duties. In
second place, in denouncing the culture of exaggeration and extremism in
its refusal of others and in its wish to have the exclusive monopoly on
an ultimate truth, and in working towards the promotion and spreading a
culture of moderation, of charity and of forgiveness as the respect of
the differences of religion and beliefs, of language, of culture, of
color and of race, and as we are taught by the Holy Koran, we put
ourselves at the judgment of God about our differences. Yes, the
Christians in the Middle East are being tested, but they are not the
only ones ".
He then points out that Christians and Muslims are in the same predicament regarding extremism.
He adds:
"The Eastern Christian presence, which works and acts
with Muslims, is a Christian as well as an Islamic need. This is a need
not only for the East, but also for the entire world. The danger
represented by the erosion of this presence on the qualitative and
quantitative levels is a Christian as well as an Islamic concern, not
only for Eastern Muslims, but for all Muslims all over the world”.
6. Conclusion
Muhammad al-Sammak highlights a number of times that
without the presence of Christians in the Middle East (and world)
society regresses.
I think this way of thinking is a strong stand by the
synod fathers: to propose, not so much a fight against Islam, but a
collaboration between Christians and Muslims against Islamic extremism.
This positive position is not merely a new way of "doing good", the
fathers recognize that there is also an intolerant tendency in Islam,
but they understand that in the Muslim world there is hope of
development and change, though not as obvious and clear as in the
Christian world.
What appears to be strong and clear is that the majority
of the Synod Fathers are convinced that the only way forward is to
constructively address the weaknesses of our society which finds itself
in deep crisis, together, Muslims and Christians.
SIC: AN/INT'L