Principles of Christian-Muslim Interaction

Our second of the “Neighboring Faiths” Interviews takes place this Sunday, April 18, at 5:30 p.m. Our guest will be the imam of the North Austin Muslim Community Center, Islam Mossaad.

Regarding these interviews, I found Chawkat Moucarry’s comments helpful in preparation. Moucarry is World Vision International's director of interfaith relations:

We can measure a fruitful dialogue by its outcomes.

It should result in a better understanding of each other's faith and of one's own.

Dialogue should lead to better relationships between the two communities and strengthen their social commitments.

Dialogue is also an excellent school for tolerance. It helps us overcome our ignorance, our prejudice, our self-centeredness, our fanaticism, and our spiritual pride.

Is conversion a legitimate goal in dialogue? Yes. It is perfectly legitimate for believers who take seriously the exclusive claims of their religion to try to persuade others of the truth they proclaim. There is nothing wrong with hoping and even expecting that some people, having carefully examined these claims, will make a life-changing decision as a result of transparent and free dialogue. Unless we accept conversion as a possible outcome for dialogue, our claim to be tolerant remains unproven.

While the preceding comments apply to all our interviews in the “Neighboring Faiths” series, Moucarry had some specific things to say about Christian dialogue with Muslims:

How do we want Muslims to relate to us and to our faith? I would like to highlight some implications of the Golden Rule for Christians who want to engage missiologically with Islam and Muslims.

First, as an expression of loving our neighbors, we must show respect to Muslims and to the heart of their identity—their prophet, their religion, and their scriptures. This attitude requires us to avoid catch questions, derogatory comments, and inflammatory language. True, some Muslim polemicists and extremists do not comply with the Qur'anic recommendation to argue with Jews and Christians "in the best possible way" (Qur'an 29:46). But this is no excuse for Christians to indulge in vitriolic criticisms of Islam.

This does not mean abstaining from criticisms of Islam. But when we have critical comments to make, we need to put them in the least offensive language and to ensure as far as we can that they are substantiated.

Second, we should do our best to be fair. This means, for instance, keeping a balance between highlighting similarities and pointing out differences when comparing Christianity and Islam.

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Finally, we need to study Islam and befriend Muslims. It is legitimate, in fact necessary, for Christians to use Islamic material in their interactions with Islam, but it is critically important that we adopt a humble attitude. We need to acknowledge that the Muslim community is the custodian of its own tradition. Its members are the authoritative interpreters of their scriptures, not us.

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A Christian perspective on Islam ought to be at the same time incarnational, sympathetic, and critical. It should be concerned more with Muslim people than with Islam….As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are under a double obligation to love our Muslim neighbors as ourselves and to share the Good News with them. Not only do the two commands go hand in hand, the second is best carried out as an expression of the first.

Read the whole thing.