Common ground for Christians, Muslims crucial but elusive

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 6 May 2000

BEIRUT, Lebanon--If Muslims and Christians are to live together peacefully, they need to search for words in common, says a leading Muslim social activist in Lebanon.

"In short, if men are left to interact and know each other and know the ideas and thoughts of each other and eradicate the ignorance of each other, I think they will have eradicated the main threat of war and conflict," says Sadr Eddine Al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr is director of the Imam Al-Sadr Centre for Research and Studies, named for his father, a Muslim scholar and activist. Al-Sadr, the son, spent four months as an International Partner in Residence at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. office in Washington, D.C., in 1995.

Al-Sadr believes Christians and Muslims can find much in common–such as their pursuit of God and helping people here on earth. "Whenever we have even a very small interaction of dialogue, the outcome of understanding between different cultures is extraordinary," he says.

"To reach that state we have many problems," he admits. Mass media and politicians stand in the way. Some in the Middle East portray the United States as the "Great Satan" while many North Americans see Muslims as violent terrorists.

Dr. Habib Badr, pastor of National Evangelical Church of Beirut, and an MCC Lebanon board member, also acknowledges the complexity of Muslim-Christian dialogue–especially in Lebanon. "The war in Lebanon left a lot of scars and it's not easy for Christians and Muslims to get together," he says. "In my view it's still in its initial stage."

He says intellectual dialogue is taking place, but it hasn't yet resulted in actions or joint projects. But he says it's essential for Christians--an estimated one-third of Lebanon's population-- to find "common ground" for co-existence with Muslims.

"Dialogue is necessary because we're here. We are in the midst of Muslims. And we don't want to fight them. We want to live with them," says Badr, who is also an executive member of the Middle East Council of Churches.

He has never met Al-Sadr, but the two anticipate meeting in the near future to start bridging the gap.

Al-Sadr gives his father, the Imam, a Muslim religious leader, credit for blazing the way for conversation between religions. "He was very successful in communicating with other religions," says Al-Sadr.

The Al-Sadr family trace their roots back 1,400 years to the prophet Muhammad himself. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the Imam expanded a small social organization into an impressive charitable institution with orphanages, academic and technical schools, and hospitals and clinics in deprived regions of Lebanon.

The Imam, who was also politically active, mysteriously disappeared in Libya in 1978. He has not been found.

In 1995, the research center, which Al-Sadr directs, was established to disseminate the Imam's teachings and writings. The center has held four major conferences since 1996, called "Common Terms," to encourage inter-religious dialogue.

At a much more grassroots level, Al-Sadr says the casual interactions between Christians and Muslims can also help break down the barriers of distrust and ignorance. "These experiences though very humble and small have large effects on both people."

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