Despite War in Iraq, Muslims and Christians see ‘a realizable vision of a world at peace’

Ten papers along with 10 responses were presented, discussed and in time published as The Road Ahead: A Christian-Muslim Dialogue, edited by Michael Ipgrave (London, 2002). At that time, it was deemed critical that the conversation should continue, no matter what, and that the focus of a second meeting should be “Sacred Scriptures.”

A slightly different group of 30 participants met April 7-9 in Doha, Qatar, as the war raged some 400 miles to the north in Iraq. I was privileged to be a part of that gathering. Four of us were Americans: two Muslim professors, a Catholic Islamic scholar and myself. N. T. Wright of England was the only other New Testament specialist among the attendees. The Muslim contingent was entirely composed of Quranic scholars and some of the Christian participants were also Islamicists. This second conference not only met in Doha but was hosted (and paid for) by the amir (ruler) of Qatar. That a conference of this nature was held in such a time and place is amazing.

In the late summer of 2002 I was told by a highly placed insider in Middle Eastern religious affairs that if war broke out in Iraq, Muslim-Christian relations all across the region would be so strained that the conference would most likely be canceled. It wasn’t, and credit is primarily due to Ha-mad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the ruler of Qatar, who bravely opted to proceed and did so with maximum national and international media coverage. On arrival at Doha airport each participant was met at the plane by a VIP car and driven to the VIP lounge. The conference opened with a formal reception and dinner hosted by the amir and attended by his entourage, along with some 500 leading citizens of the nation. As participants we were told, “Please wear your robes.” The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was resplendent in full-length purple robe and cross. A Roman Catholic archbishop was equally distinguished

with appropriate formal ecclesiastical garb. The best this poor Presbyterian could manage was a clerical collar. Each conference participant was individually ushered in to meet and greet the ruler. But these formalities were not the high point of that memorable first morning.

There were speeches. There are always speeches (sigh)! In this case — lots of speeches. The sheik, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic archbishop, the rector of the university, a leading Muslim cleric from Cairo, were all given the floor and an opportunity to “have their say.” The ruler declared his eagerness for Qatar to become a permanent international center for an ongoing process of bridge-building between Christians and Muslims. The speeches were all well-prepared and to the point. They were climaxed by a speech from Qatar’s leading Muslim cleric.

Another sheik, Qaradawi, was not present. Due to ill health, he was a patient in a local hospital. But for him this conference was so important that he addressed us from a chair beside his hospital bed via television. A huge TV screen at the front of the auditorium made it possible for us to follow every word and every nuance of expression on his face (simultaneous translation was available for those who could not follow the classical Arabic). His remarks were stunning. Rising to the occasion he delivered a non-scripted passionate declaration of enthusiastic support for the conference. He spoke from his heart regarding all that it meant to him, to the nation of Qatar and to the wider Muslim and Christian worlds.

Muslims and Christians are united, he declared, in at least three critical areas of life. First, both faiths believe in peace and are against war. Christians all over the globe, he reminded us, have by the millions marched and demonstrated against the war in Iraq. Therefore, no one can say that this war is Christians against Muslims. The pope himself is against the war. This is not a new “crusade” attacking the Muslim nation! The Quran and the Bible are united in favor of peace against war, and in like manner Muslims and Christians worldwide stand together in their struggle for peace. Second, the two faith communities affirm and require high moral standards. Qaradawi mentioned the integrity of the family along with opposition to immorality, pornography and homosexuality. The Bible and the Quran agree on these matters, he told us. Finally, both religions believe in civil rights, and stand for justice, care for the poor, racial equality and economic opportunity for all. I was quite overwhelmed! Here was a sick man, passionately telling the world from his bedside that there are many vitally important areas of life where we are agreed and insisting that the current conflict is not a measure of the commitments of either Christians or Muslims.

It would have been very, very easy for Hamad to have quietly told the Archbishop that, due to the aroused passions of the critical days through which we were passing, the conference should be “postponed” or the venue returned to London. Not so — we proceeded, and did so under the bright glare of the media for the entire Muslim and Christian worlds to see. For the next three days our conference dominated the front pages of Qatar’s Arabic and English newspapers. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported our conference on its hourly news summary throughout most of the three days. (Were the Americans likewise watching or were they more interested in war? I don’t know. I was in Qatar.)

The academic work of the conference was strenuous but worthwhile. I will not try to review it here. The papers of the conference will be published. In passing I can note that there was no smooth, gentle attempt to eliminate age-old differences and only talk in the broad generalities where we know we are in agreement. Rather, specific texts from the Bible and from the Quran were presented and discussed together hour after hour in small groups composed of about seven people. How does each Scripture see itself? How do the Quran and the Bible deal with the modern world and how does each Scripture view “the other”? That is, what does the Quran have to say about the non-Muslim and how does the Bible view the one who does not believe? What about Jonah and the Ninevites and what is the significance of John 14:6 which reads, “No one comes to the Father but by me”? What of the Quran that declares “True religion before God is Islam”?

The discussions were sometimes painful, but always honest and open. Misunderstandings were clarified and dismissed. New options for interpretation of these time-honored texts were explored and at the end of the day we became friends, in spite of deep differences. Flint-like commitments remained and were openly visible, but halfway through the conference I noticed that at meals the small tables in the dining room were filled with Muslims and Christians seated together. For the first time in my life a head-covered Muslim woman (with a Ph.D. in the interpretation of the Quran) asked me, “Dr. Bailey, would you please explain to me what you Christians really believe about the Trinity?” She graciously responded to my less-than-adequate answers with sincere thanks. We had become friends and she felt safe to ask and I felt free to reply — and that was what the conference was really all about.

Cruise missiles were being fired from ships just offshore but we did not hear them. The sound of gunfire and shouts of “crusader” and “terrorist” were mentally, for us, a million miles away. I was privileged to stand tall in our 155 years of Presbyterian ministry in the Middle East. There in Qatar, a few miles south of Iraq, we experienced a fresh potential for openness in the telling of our story even as we listened carefully to the story of the “other.” In the process we were witnesses to a realizable vision of a world at peace in the Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, the Sudan, Nigeria, Bosnia, Cyprus and beyond.

Kenneth E. Bailey of New Wilmington, Pa., is an author and lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament Studies.