Evangelical-Muslim conversation

by Leo D. Lefebure

Given the chronic, intense interreligious animosity in Nigeria, can Muslim and Christian leaders of opposing armed militias lay down their arms and work together? This may sound unlikely, but recently at Georgetown University two remarkable men told stories of how this came to pass.

The event was the June 16-17 Global Leadership Forum 2009, which focused on evangelicals and Muslims and was cosponsored by Georgetown and the Institute for Global Engagement. In the opening session, evangelical pastor James Movel Wuye and imam Muhammad Nurayn Ashafa told of their transformation.

Both recalled the intense hatred they once felt for the other's religion, a hatred they said was related to British colonialism. Ashafa charged that British rule left memories of numerous perceived injustices, plus a conception that the "friend of my enemy is my enemy. Therefore, we are always at war with each other." He warned the assembly that "if conflict is not transformed, it is transferred in an unending cycle of violence."

Wuye recalled that, thanks to the colonial masters' programming, "My hate for Muslims in those days was very great." He had learned violence from his childhood in the civil war in Nigeria, and he trained people—using the Bible—to harm others. But then "something happened to change me." Wuye cited Isaiah 1:18 as a mode for transformational dialogue.

Ashafa and Wuye cofounded and direct the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna, on the border between Nigeria's mostly Muslim North and its mostly Christian South. Today the men work together to address the psychological dynamic of religiously motivated violence, promoting mutual respect through teaching peace and nonviolence. They seek to influence local communities, schools and centers of worship to prevent further violence.

During the same session, IGE's Chris Seiple spoke about the transformation of the evangelical community, with younger evangelicals' greater emphasis on social justice and compassion. He noted that despite the irreconcilable theological differences between evangelicals and Muslims, the two can find common ground as they begin to understand shared values such as compassion, justice, peace and mercy.

A later session on religious freedom was more difficult. When evangelical presenters expressed concerns about religious freedom in predominantly Muslim societies, Ahmed Younis of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the Muslim-West Facts Initiative responded forcefully:

[It is] incongruent to construct a narrative of Muslims in the West having religious freedom while Christians do not have it in Muslim lands. This renders Muslims a monolith and makes them responsible for Muslim societies.

Younis noted that Muslims living in the West have a long list of grievances regarding constraints on religious practice. He also warned that Christian evangelization in the Central Asian Republics pushes traditional Muslims to support a pro-caliphate organization, which otherwise they would never do.

While there were sharp differences of perspective, the most important contribution of the conversation was that it took place at all. If evangelicals and Muslims can continue to engage one another, the transformations that Pastor Wuye and Imam Ashafa experienced may grow to their broader communities.

Leo D. Lefebure, author of Revelation, the Religions and Violence and a Century editor at large, teaches at Georgetown University's campus in Qatar.