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By Agostino Bono, CNS. News Report in the New Church magazine, the Examiner
Western colonialism has been a negative factor in Christian-Muslim relations because in the eyes of many Muslims it is tied to Christianity, according to several Muslim leaders. They added that Western colonialism helped spark the rise of radical Islamic political movements in reaction to western domination. Also criticizing Western colonialism was Bishop Micheal Fitzgerald, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The bishop and the Muslim leaders spoke during a Sept 19 - 22 Catholic sponsored meeting of world religious leaders in Milan.
COlonialism in Islamic countries caused a "love-hate relationship with the Christian West," said Bishop Fitzgerald. The west's "technical advances awere admired, but its domination was abhorred," he added. "Christians did not really have an adequate theological basis for an open relationship with Muslims," the bishop said. "Islam tended to be looked upon as a sort of Christian heresy, and Muslims therefore worthy of condemnation."
Muslim leaders disagreed in the degree of Christian guilt for colonial domination. Some saw colonialism as an extension of the medieval crusades to capture the Muslim-held Holy Land. Others said it was more the fault of governments, which used religion as an excuse for domination.
Sheik Mohammed Mokhtar Sellami, the grand mufti of Tunis, Tunisia, saw a strong Christian link to colonial conquest and said Christian leaders should apologize. "It is indispensable that the Church explicitly state its apology for the abuses in which selfishness and feelings of hate dominated,: he said. This is needed to produce "an atmosphere of sincere trust in the call to dialogue" and to overcome "blind fanaticism" based on religion, added Sellami. He saw Christian persecution of Muslims continuing today in the Serb ethnic-cleansing policies against Bosnian Muslims. The aim is "to exterminate the Muslims and to make them subject to the cruelest outrages because they are Muslims and because they have chosen a faith different from the Orthodox faith," said Sellami.
Mohammad Sammak, political advisor to the grand mufti of Lebanon, said colonial powers used Christian minorities as a bridgehead in Muslim countries and as an excuse to invade. "Mistreating minorities was the master key for foreign intervention," he said. The result has been a bad image for Christians even though there were Arab Christians before there were Arab Muslims, he said.
Kamil Al-Sharif, special envoy of Crown Prince Bin Talal of Jordan, said that "the enemy of the colonial powers was Islam" and there is still "a vicious campaign" against Islam in the West. Little attention is given to the spirit of tolerance and brotherhood that should guide application of Islamic teachings and laws, he said. "There are still forces trying to keep Islam from taking its place in the world," said Sharif, gneral secretary of the Islamic Relief Council.
Muslim speakers rejected use of the term "fundamentalist" to describe these groups, saying the word has a positive meaning in Islam. The term originated in the West, they said.
But there was an acknowledgement of the growth of radical Islamic political movements and worry about the phenomenon. Muslim speakers criticized these groups for choosing violence as their political means and for misinterpreting Islamic teachings. "Violence comes from people who deform the book and the law,: said Mohammad Amine Smaili, professor of Muslim dogma and comparative religions at the University of Rabat, Morocco. "Some try to apply the Koran to politics and manipulate texts to political ends," he added. "A holy war is a contradiction in terms. Only peace is holy," he said.
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