wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Columnist says Arab Christians could help bridge gulf

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8886 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05462
Sept. 6, 2005

Go-betweens

Arab Christians could help bridge gulf 
dividing world religions, columnist says

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - A respected Lebanese intellectual is urging U.S. Christians and
Middle Eastern Muslims to look to Arab Christians to help the two faith
groups overcome a history of misunderstanding.

	Mohammad Sammak, the secretary general of Lebanon's Christian-Muslim
Committee for Dialogue, a political analyst and syndicated columnist, has
written a series of columns insisting that statements from U.S. churches are
more balanced regarding Arabs than the policies of the U.S. government -
which is news to most Muslims.

	Muslims, Sammak writes, should study those church statements and
initiate dialogue with U.S. churches, with Arab Christians making the
introductions.

	Sammak said by phone from Beirut that American churches could easily
make the first move.

	Both Islam and the U.S. churches have ties to Middle Eastern
Christians, and Middle Eastern Christians understand both Islam and the U.S.
churches, he said.

	Sammak's syndicated political columns are published by the Ahram
newspaper in Cairo, Ittihad in Abu Dabi, and Al-Mustaqbal in Beirut.

	"The problem is that Arabs, in particular, and almost all Muslims,
from India to Morocco, know very little about positions taken by the American
churches, the National Council of Churches and the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), in particular," said Sammak.

	The problem, as he sees it, is twofold: Ordinary Muslims don't know
what U.S. churches have said or done, because those churches aren't covered
by the Islamic press. And U.S. churches often neglect or ignore the long
history of Middle Eastern Christians.

	He argues that the door to dialogue is open.

	Sammak's columns originated with the vote by the PC(USA)'s 204th
General Assembly to begin pressuring U.S. corporations stop financing
violence, construction of the barrier wall and settlement-building in Israel
and the Palestinian territories - using the denomination's stock holdings to
get a seat at the table.

	That was big news in the Islamic world, he said.

	The decision outraged the U.S. Jewish community, which has accused
the PC(USA) of bias and charged that it is singling out Israel for criticism.
The United Church of Christ has taken a similar action, and the policy of
selective divestment is under study by several other mainline U.S.
denominations and has been recommended by several worldwide communions, such
as the Anglicans.

	Given the wide press coverage, Muslims noticed that U.S. churches are
acting in ways their own communities are not, according to Sammak.

	"The Muslim world is doing practically nothing constructive for the
Palestinian people, only issuing declarations," said Sammak, a diplomat who
has helped create the delicate political-religious structures that balance
Islamic and Christian interests in Lebanon. "This is the first time ... (the
general public heard) from an American church community ... something
positive about the horrors committed by Israel in the occupied part of the
West Bank."
 
	Opposition from Muslims is based on longstanding misunderstandings,
Sammak said, including assumed U.S. prejudice against Islam as a religion and
unquestioning  support for Israel.

	"Muslims scholars are afraid to take the initiative regarding the
U.S. and the American church," he said. "There is no history of cooperation.
There are no bridges (that have been crossed.) And it is all complicated by
the 11th of September. There are many problems ... moving forward. But I
believe the American church can play an important role by taking initiative
toward these people."

	He said there are three hurdles that must be cleared before progress
is made: Americans do not understand Islamic culture; Muslims themselves
misunderstand some aspects of Islam; and too little support for the role Arab
Christians can play in fostering dialogue in the United States and in the
West in general.

	"I'm afraid that since the crimes committed on Sept. 11, there has
been a general misunderstanding that Arabs, that Muslims, are against the
American way of living, against American values," Sammak said. "That's not
true."

	He said human rights, liberty and even democracy are not solely
American ideals, but are deeply rooted in Islamic culture as well.

	He said many Muslims do not understand these aspects of their own
teachings.

	Sammak, 69, has served as advisor to the Grand Mufti of Lebanon and
to former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in
February 2004. He has held the posts of secretary general of the Islamic
Permanent Committee and of the executive committee of the Christian-Muslim
Arab Group.

	He is a consummate ecumenist who advocates for a strong Christian
presence in the Middle East and believes Christians "should feel safe in the
Arab world" - and laments that that is not always the case. He argues that
full citizenship of Christians ought to be preserved in all Muslim countries,
including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

	He said some Americans may be guilty of neglecting ties to the
sizeable Christian communities in the Middle East.

	"It is a mistake if the Western world treats Christians in the Middle
East as if they are not there," he said, describing how Palestinian
Christians have been neglected by U.S. churches, some of whose members fail
to recognize that Christianity began in Palestine.

	"There are means and there are ways ... and I believe we can do
something positive and we should," Sammak said. "There's a big gap of
misunderstanding ... (that) cannot be solved except for the positive role
played by Christians in the Middle East and churches in the Middle East."

	He cited the Middle East Council of Churches in Cyprus, the World
Council of Churches in Geneva and the National Council of Churches in New
York as possible starting points.

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