Responding to Islamophobia, with Love
Eleven things you wished you didn’t know about Islamophobia
For Islamophobia Awareness Month (originally posted on Facebook in May 2015)
But before we look at love, let’s recap on what we already know about Islamophobia:
1. It’s not going away
2. There is a consistent third of the population/statistical sample groups who have very negative opinions of Islam/Muslims
3. It is most likely that any news article about Muslims will be negative rather than positive
4. Attacks on Muslim women, usually wearing hijab, continue, especially when there are anti-Muslim messages or Islam-related incidents in the news
5. The ‘Trojan Horse’, or Trojan Hoax, case created further suspicion and anxiety about British Muslims
6. The Qur’an does not have a good reputation in many places
7. Nor, sadly, does the Prophet Muhammad
8. This is against a backdrop of fourteen years of Muslims, and non-Muslims, trying to educate society about what Islam is really about
9. I’ve been accused of lying when speaking positively about Islam in churches and of being a ‘coward’ on social media, again by ‘Christians’
10. It’s often asking for trouble if you talk about shari’ah, jihad and even tawhid (monotheism) in the masjid, or outside it
11. And let’s not forget ‘creeping sharia’h’, Islamisation or Islamicisation of Britain, being ‘taken over’, ‘swamped’ and so on.
Thankfully, this is not the whole picture and many who are not Muslims do not have a problem with Muslims, though continuing fears about extremism, terrorism and ‘jihadis’ on their way to or returning from ISIS fuel an ongoing and increasing fear and dread. I take hope from the two-thirds who are either well-disposed towards Muslims or fall into the ‘don’t know’ segment. I haven’t seen any figures, though they may well be out there, tracking attitudes towards Muslims on an annual basis from 2001 to today.
What would Jesus do?
This question, trite, overused and debased by glib answers might be seen as the adult version of the Sunday school exchange — where the answer to every question is ‘Jesus’. However, I don’t believe that, when it counts, Christians are using it enough. There is a perception, though hopefully shifting through the good work of organisations like The Feast, Mahabba and Near Neighbours, that it is only liberals who do inter faith, i.e. that it is not something that Jesus would do. I’m not sure that Christians who have a problem with inter faith would therefore like to associate Jesus with bigotry, hatred, fear, isolationism and distrust but, for some, I am betraying my faith, and Jesus, if this fearful position is not my outlook too.
Of course I’m not so liberal that I wouldn’t claim Jesus’ support for doing the opposite of this, following the sunnah (example) of Jesus who had a habit of turning things on their head — you have heard it said that Muslims are the enemies of Christians but I say be friends with them and receive God’s peace and blessings (you can look this up in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew’s Gospel). Christians should actually be at the forefront of building bridges with Muslims, living up to the Qur’anic appreciation of the ‘People of the Book’. And, yes, God does expect that we should be using our Books, which some say are mutually contradictory and opposed to each other, in a creative way to bridge the gaps. That’s the only way I can make sense of the different Scriptures that we have and the reason why we should all be reading scripture together.
So what does Jesus say about Islamophobia? Jesus continually urged his followers not to fear — not to fear the authorities, those with hatred in their hearts, extreme weather conditions, death, the apocalypse, the miraculous, even God. So Jesus would not be Islamophobic, nor should his followers be. However, we need to take this further in case I only answer part of the question. Fear and hatred are two sides of the same coin, usually combining in the inexact use of ‘Islamophobia’ — phobos, phobia meaning fear or anxiety. This is why in recent years, following the example of TellMAMA, I have begun to use anti-Muslim hatred instead, it is a more appropriate term as, even though there are anxieties about conversion to Islam and shari’ah, very few public concerns, in wider society at least, are of a religious or theological nature.
So what did Jesus say about hatred? This is another of those very obvious, almost rhetorical questions, of course Jesus was against hate. Sadly this is not true of all his followers, some of whom reserve a particular hatred and deep suspicion of Muslims. I have experienced this in various ways, though most violently on 7/7 itself at a Christian conference about Islam. Unfortunately it was not an event which focused on getting to know Muslims and Islam or building bridges with them but Muslims and Islam as a problem. I have been to a number of much better events since then, organised by Evangelical Christians and by the Christian Muslim Forum. On this occasion, with much less actual experience, I challenged the brand of religious debunking of Islam and was almost rewarded with a punch from a fellow participant, until I asked him why he was balling his fist. The unfolding events of 7/7 offered some explanation, but not justification.
In short Christians should be doing better, they should be known for their efforts in engaging constructively in dialogue and relationship-building with Muslims. This was my mission at the Christian Muslim Forum, exploring and enabling ways for this to happen as widely as possible, the work continues. Central to this were two things which are very simple but I think at the heart of how we achieve change and sufficiently challenging that we will not say, ‘I’ve done that, what’s next?’ Specifically, making oneself into a personal, leading, example of bridge-building and having a radical appreciation of Muslims and Islam, enjoying the diverse opportunities for being and living together. This was all that the Christian Muslim Forum did, whether producing shared guidelines on ethical evangelism and daw’ah or on inter faith marriage, encouraging church-mosque relationships, scriptural reasoning, joint advocacy, campaigning against racism and Islamophobia and for halal food, standing together at distressing times, such as the murder of Lee Rigby or attacks on Christians in Pakistan or Muslims in Burma, praying for peace in Israel and Gaza and visiting the Holy Land together.
However, I need to develop this further. We should be speaking more positively of ‘love’. You can trace my own journey in developing this idea from the speech I gave at the 2012 launch of Islam Awareness Week, which had the theme of love. This should, indeed, shape our relationship with each other. This is excellently done in Ray Gaston’s (@revdray) book ‘A Heart Broken Open’, which I would recommend to anyone, particularly Christians, but also Muslims, and anyone else. Once we reframe the question in terms of love then it becomes something very different. This may be language which is too ‘religious’ for secular opponents of Islam and to them I would ask, echoing in reverse the Qur’anic motif, ‘Why be so willing to believe the negative and deny the good, harmonious and peaceful expressions of Islam in our society?’ The Qur’an urges ‘enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong’ (3.110). It also assumes, rather than urges, the love of the Muslims for the ‘People of the Book’, even when not reciprocated — ‘You are the ones who bear love towards them, while they do not love you, though you believe in all the Books’ (3.119).
So what can we do as individuals? Here’s a few suggestions:
1. At its simplest, meet and greet our Muslim neighbours
2. Visit your local mosque, earlier this year there was a #visitmymosque initiative
3. As Ramadan is approaching, attend a Big Iftar.
4. Read the Qur’an, or at least part of it, the last part (shorter chapters, is often recommended) or the beginning, which engages with many Biblical characters and relationships between Muslims and the ‘People of the Book’
5. Join a dialogue or scriptural reasoning group, relatively easy in London, and in major British cities (details of groups via the Cambridge Interfaith Programme)
6. Find ways of including Muslim guests at your church at particular times of year (one of my Muslim friends came to the parish church with me for the Ash Wednesday service)
7. Mention your own involvement in inter faith from the pulpit, in prayers (pray particularly for the Muslim community during Ramadan) and in sermons
A few pointers for Muslims
Almost as a footnote, I offer a few suggestions for Muslims, firmly believing, as in the case of Jesus’ words and examples in the Bible, that everything you need to know is in the Qur’an already. Nevertheless, it may be that an external prompt is helpful.
1. Invite people to visit your masjid, pray or share in dhikr (chanting, meditation) with you.
2. Do talk about Muhammad and the Qur’an in a welcoming and inclusive way, if you don’t already.
3. Read the Bible.
4. Visit a church with a Christian friend.
5. Become involved in inter faith initiatives.
6. Talk to other Muslims about inter faith and engagement with Christians and wider society.
Julian Bond
May 2015
