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‘Islam and Christianity: How do we relate?’

Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

A young woman prays at the monument of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, Lebanon, in 2011. Muslims, who venerate Mary, along with Christians visit the shrine 16 miles north of Beirut. Cynthia Karam | CNS PHOTO, REUTERS

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When you think of Islamic-Christian relations, your mind may
flash to the Crusades, Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand or the current
geopolitical strife. Yet, in the hundreds of years since the founding of Islam,
Christians and Muslims often interacted peaceably, even coming to each other’s
aid as fellow members of the Abrahamic faith tradition.

During a Theology on Tap at Ornery Beer Company and Public House
in Woodbridge March 27, Franciscan Father Michael D. Calabria, director of the
Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at St. Bonaventure University, a Franciscan
school in New York, relayed stories of interfaith cooperation.

In the early 600s during Islam’s inception, the first Muslims
were persecuted by the polytheistic Quraysh tribe in Mecca. Muhammad instructed
his followers to seek asylum in a Christian kingdom in Abyssinia, Africa. But
members of the Quraysh tribe pursued the Muslims to Abyssinia and asked the
Christian king to send them back. Ja’far, leader of the Muslims, explained to
the king their religion’s reverence for Mary and Jesus Christ. The king, touched
by their similarities, vowed to protect them.
The Quran and the Bible have many overlapping stories, said Father Calabria,
including the story of the resurrection of Lazarus and two accounts of the
Annunciation. Mary is the only woman specifically named in the Quran, and one
of only eight people who have a book of the Quran named after them. “Mary, for
Muslims, typifies what it means to be Muslim because she gave over her will to
the will of God,” he said.

Islam teaches that Jesus Christ was a great prophet and that He
will come again. “Jesus embodies God’s mercy for Muslims. He is God’s Word who
heals the blind and the sick,” said Father Calabria.

Islam’s belief in prophets also sacred to Judaism and
Christianity has led to conflict in the Holy Land several times throughout
history. Yet in some cases, the disagreement did not lead to bloodshed. In the
13th century, Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire promised to go on a Crusade
to the Holy Land, and eventually was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for
failing to do so. In 1229, he successfully negotiated Christian control of the
Holy Land, but allowed for Muslims to have access to their holy places.

Centuries later in Algeria, a Muslim man named Emir Abdelkader
led a holy war, or jihad, against the invading French forces. Eventually they
were defeated, and Abdelkader was kept under house arrest for several years. In
1860, he was released and settled in Damascus. There, a civil war broke out
between the Muslim Druzes, supported by the British, and the Christian
Maronites, supported by the French.

When the Druzes attacked a Christian neighborhood, Abdelkader
welcomed large numbers of Christians into his home for protection. For his
bravery, he was awarded the French Medal of Honor and Abraham Lincoln gifted
him with two pistols.

Abdelkader explained, “The good we did toward the Christians we
had to do out of fidelity to the Muslim faith and to respect the rights of
humanity, for all creatures belong to God’s family.”

Through these stories and others like them, Father Calabria hopes
to remind both Christians and Muslims of their commonalities and the times they
lived together in harmony. He urged all gathered to study the holy texts of
other religions, to dialogue with those of different religions and to go in
peace. 

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