Mustafa Abdel-Halim, IOL Staff

CAIRO, February 8 (IslamOnline.net) – The United Church of Canada acknowledged a long history of hostility toward Muslims in Christianity and asserted that the image of Islam which "today is too often depicted as a religion of violence" should be reversed.

The Church, the main representative of Canadian Protestants, will release in mid-February a document seeking reconciliation with Muslims based on commonalities between the two religions, Margaret Sumdh, a member of the church’s Interfaith Committee, told IslamOnline.net.

A copy of the document sent to IOL, acknowledges "a long history within Christianity of hostility toward Muslims and Islam and seeks to commit itself to a journey of reconciliation with Muslim neighbors".

Entitled "That We May Know Each Other", the document delves deep into the relation between Islam and Christianity in the Canadian context.

Affirming "the self-witness of Islam as a religion of peace, mercy, justice and compassion", it maintains that Christians should seek to "understand Islam with humility and caution".

The 80-page document was prepared by the church in consultation with Canadian Muslim organization, a measure showing how people of the two faith are anxious to reconcile.

Asserting that it took two years to draft the document, Sumdh said it would be distributed widely and included in a study guide in churches.

"We’ll attempt to reach all sections of society including those who have no background," she said.

The church official underlined that although the document was written for a Canadian context, it set an example for how people of different religions can live together in harmony, specially in North America.

According to the 2001 censes, Muslims make up 2 per cent of the Canadian population.

But their number increased by 128.9 per cent to 579,640 in the decade beginning in 1991, making Islam Canada's fastest-growing religion.

Misinformation

Indeed one positive sign of the possibility for "healing and reconciliation" is that the document starts from the assumption that Christians should understand accurately what Muslims themselves believe Islam to be.

"Our hope is that the church will be changed in the experience of truly coming to understand our Muslim neighbors," it says.

The document stresses that Islam is too often "wrongly depicted as a religion of violence."

It also dismisses earlier depictions of Islam as sensual, despotic and promiscuous, some of these ideas proved to be persistent in western mindset and media.

"The Qur'an sought to offer alternatives to violence that consumed Arabic society of its day," says the church document.

The Qur'an "abolished the traditions of tribal blood revenge and put in their place institutions whereby justice could be sought without violence," it affirms.

The document concludes that the overall emphasis in the Qur'an is clearly "that mercy, justice and forgiveness prevail in human relations".

Ever since the 9-11 attacks, several Christian clergymen have attacked Islam, including popular U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson who said that western media and leaders failed to educate Americans about what he claimed was violence in the Qur’an and Islamic history.

Stereotypes

The church document deems it a main challenge to confront attempts to deny the valuable contributions of the Islamic civilization to humanity and seeks to acknowledge "the indebtedness of all western civilizations to the Arab and Islamic world."

It also dismisses stereotypes about Islamic traditions, saying a common misconception centers on the degree of freedom and self-determination experienced by married Muslim women.

"The Qur'an established marriage as a specific institution with rights and responsibilities," reads the document.

It adds that the Muslims’ holy book recognizes marriage as "a contract entered into by two parties in front of witnesses. Both parties must enter the marriage of their own free will".

The document also refutes claims that women are persecuted in Islam, acknowledging that in Islam both men and women "are accorded the same value before God".

It tackles the idea of Jihad in Islam, cited in western media as an unbelievable justification for Muslims to line up to die.

It recognizes that Jihad is divided into two categories, one is the struggle within oneself against any evil or temptation and the other is the "defense of Islam, or of a Muslim country or a community against aggression".

"It may be a jihad of the pen or of the tongue. If it involves conflict, it is strictly regulated, and can only be defensive," asserts the document.

One God

Admitting that "the Christian history is full of examples of misinformation and outright misrepresentation of Muhammad's life," the documents urges Christians "to speak truthfully and respectfully" of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

"We believe it is a possible, although a major step forward in Muslim-Christian relationships, for Christians to acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet of God," it adds.

The documents reiterates the church’s acknowledgement of Prophet Muhammad’s "prophetic witness."

However, it argues that "Christians can not of course affirm Muhammad as the seal of the prophets" because this would mean affirming the primacy of the Qur'an over the gospel of Jesus.

The document "affirms that God is creatively and redemptively at work in the religious life of Muslims and that we share with Muslims a belief in one God and a common spiritual origin in the faith of Abraham."

"Different conceptions and ways of speaking to God do not negate the common orientations to the one God known by many names," it assets.

It recognizes that "Jesus is accorded immense honor as a prophet in the Qur'an and by Muslims."

Like Christians, Muslims believe that Jesus was born miraculously without a father. But unlike them, Muslims do not take him to be God or the Son of God.

The document admits that earlier sweeping conversions to Islam among Christians were due to the fact that "theology of Islam seemed much simpler and easier to engage than the paradoxes associated with the Trinity and the dual nature of Jesus".

"For Muslims the creed was simple, 'The only God is God and Muhammad is his prophet’," it says.

The church concedes that earlier interest of European Christians in learning about Islam were driven by attempts to reverse  the flow of conversions from Christianity or at least stop it.

'Clear Message'

The document was initially hailed by Muslims in Canada, a county best described as a tapestry of cultures and religions.  

"The views in the document are very positive and produced tremendous reactions among Muslims," said Ibrahim Hayati, a political science professor and a resident of Toronto.

"The church went out of its way to reach Muslims and show that Islam is valid in this country," said Hayati, adding the document is tantamount to an apology for hostility against Islam.

He indicated that efforts are underway for Catholic churches to follow in the footsteps of the protestant United Church.