Contemporary discussions on religious minorities in Islam

Brigham Young University Law Review, 2002 by Nielsen, Jorgen S

III. CONCLUSION

Discussion of the issues outlined above has not remained isolated in small groups of enthusiasts. Most recently it has found unusually strong expression in the form of an "Arab Muslim-Christian covenant" entitled Dialogue and Coexistence. The text of this document, nearly three years in preparation, was finalized at a large, highly publicized meeting in Cairo in December 2001. Participants included scholars, writers, and religious functionaries covering a wide and ecumenical spectrum of both Christians and Muslims from the Arab world. Press and political response to the document ranged from positive to enthusiastic. I can think of no better way to end this paper than by including a few key excerpts from the document:

5. The Arab Working Group on Dialogue observes that the effort to give firm foundation to a sense of coexistence is mandated by shared national and social concerns and aims, by a single historical and cultural process, and by a sense of common destiny. These are core issues that bring everyone together. The duties, rights and consequences they imply are not the domain of just one faction. Religious differences do not cancel out the fact of belonging all together to the Arab Islamic culture, in whose making Christians and Muslims participated side by side.

6. [The Working Group] sees the strengthening national unity as imperative. Sensitive to how external intervention can precipitate internal unrest that can take on a religious coloration, it is not right to make light of how internal factors and circumstances can be manipulated and exploited by foreign powers to serve their own interests.

The citizens of the united nation, both Muslim and Christian, must join in dialogue and work together to address internal issues and to solve the problems they raise. This is the prerequisite to frustrating foreign interference that only aggravates the situation and nurtures suspicions and mutual fear. But if making light of how internal problems can inflict great damage on national unity, so too making too much of them can provoke similar damage. Among Muslim and Christian citizens of one nation, exaggerations can foster a generalized atmosphere of panic, fear and self-isolation.

Jorgen S. Nielsen*

* Professor of Islamic Studies and Director, Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Department of Theology, University of Birmingham, U.K Email: j.s.nielsen@bham.ac.uk. The initial research for this paper was conducted during an extended visit to Lebanon and Jordan in the Summer of 1995, funded in part by the British Academy.