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I am writing to you as a Christian
Palestinian. When did I become Christian?
Since the days Jesus walked on the land of
Palestine. I belong to the only indigenous
Christian community in the world, which
makes us a very special and precious
community. If, for example, you asked my
mother (who did not know how to read and
write) about what Jesus said, she wouldn’t
be able to recite anything other than ‘love
one another’. Yet, she beautifully embodied
the spirit of Jesus in her life. How did she
get her knowledge and how did she embody his
spirit? This is exactly what I mean by
belonging to the very special and precious
indigenous Palestinian Christian community.
She did not know about Christ via words,
texts, and missionaries but through the
spirit of Jesus as it was carried in
people’s hearts and ways of living, and was
transmitted from one generation to another
since Jesus walked on this Earth. I am one
of the last people who are experiencing this
spirit. We are special and precious because
once we disappear – as a community – it is
not possible to re-create it. Unlike
organizations, communities are not the
creation of the mind; they cannot be created
rationally through planning by
professionals, institutions, and budgets.
Communities are formed over thousands of
years. In other words, the loss of
Palestinian Christian communities is a loss
that cannot be regained and, thus, it is a
huge loss. I was lucky to live, feel, and
experience this spirit in my home, but at
the same time I am a product of
institutions. Thus, I know very well the
difference between people’s Christianity and
institutional Christianity. They are worlds
apart. (In 1992, I wrote a small booklet –
in Arabic – entitled “My mother’s
Christianity vs. Western Christianity”.
Later in this letter, I will write more on
how Christianity was manifested in people’s
lives like my parents.) It is not easy to
clarify the difference through words; that’s
why I would like to invite you to visit and
stay with us in Ramallah. I would have loved
to invite you to our home in Jerusalem
(since Jerusalem would be more meaningful)
but I can’t, because it has been occupied –
since 1948 – by “civilized democratic”
European Jews who were promised my homeland
(including my home) by “civilized democratic
Christian” Britain. What is interesting
about our house in Jerusalem (where I was
born) is that it is almost midway between
where Jesus was born and where he was
buried. Our house in Ramallah is humble, but
you will see for yourself what I mean by
people’s Christianity. You will meet my
sisters who still carry within their hearts
and in their relations with people the
spirit of Christ as I am talking about it
here. I sincerely hope – for the sake of the
world – that you accept my invitation.
Palestinian Christian communities are
quickly disappearing; we are a dying
“species”. Our disappearance started when
Israel was created in 1948 (with the help
and support of “Christian” Britain and US
that are still supporting Israel to drive
more Palestinians, both Muslim and
Christian, out of our lands and homes in
Palestine). Today, there are some scattered
Christian families in Jerusalem, but there
is no Christian community in Jerusalem. I
feel this loss in a very personal way, and
it hurts as a deep wound because I know how
beautiful it is, and that it cannot be
recovered. A whole special “world” is
disappearing, a world that you seem not to
be aware of. Although Christian communities
are disappearing in Palestine, certain
Palestinian Christian groups were formed
that are trying to bring their voice to
those interested around the world. They are
the next best source of how Palestinian
Christians see the world and see themselves
in the world, by trying to keep Jesus’
spirit alive in their ways of living and
relating. I will mention here two such
groups, in case you decide to look up their
websites: “SABEEL” (in Jerusalem) and “Dar
an-Nadwa” (in Bethlehem).
Since I was a little boy (I am now 65 years
old), I have been listening to missionaries,
mainly from Britain and the US. I know
missionaries who came to Palestine very
well. Those that I met wanted to do good,
but they seem to be imprisoned within words,
meanings, perceptions, and conceptions that
they acquired in their own countries. I
never met a missionary, for example, that
was interested in knowing Christianity as it
was embedded in my parents’ ways of living;
it even seems that they were not aware that
it was special and radically different.
Because western Christianity is visible
through institutions and through words,
symbols and images, it was difficult to see
my parents’ Christianity that was part of
people’s lives and could not be articulated
in words. They might have even thought that
it is of a lesser kind. Never did I meet one
missionary who came to Palestine to learn
from this special and precious
community. They all came to preach and
convert us to their respective
denominations. It always fascinated me how
difficult for Europeans and Americans to
learn from other cultures. What is
referred to as “area studies” in western
universities do not, in general, refer to
learning from but about other
cultures – usually in order to control. This
may explain why it is difficult for many
westerners (who live with individualism and
consumerism as main traits in life) to
understand the meaning of community in the
sense I experienced it while growing up.
They see us as Christians or Muslims but not
as communities that include both (which also
included Jews before 1948) living within
harmonious relations. The call “war on
terror” – for me – is to cover a deeper war:
war on communities. People are nurtured
by communities but controlled
by institutions. This source of
nurturing was lost starting in 1948 and
continued to be lost at an increasing rate
ever since.
The assumption that one can understand
another world through words and concepts is
one of the myths of the modern world, where
knowledge is thought to reside in words and
can be transmitted through words. This is
true about how westerners know about Islam:
mainly through words and images. Minds
formed mainly by texts and images are –at
best – limited. Words, images, and pictures
are not reality. To understand another
world, one has to experience it, i.e., to
enter it without prior concepts and
thoughts.
In the lecture you gave in Germany, you
quoted, without qualification and with
apparent approval, the words of the
14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II:
"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was
new, and there you will find things only
evil and inhuman, such as his command to
spread by the sword the faith he preached."
I would excuse Manuel II for saying that; he
probably didn’t know any better, but this is
not true in your case – especially in light
of what is happening in the world at the
time you repeated that statement. Failing
to see four current and extremely bloody,
brutal, and destructive wars waged by
“Christian” and “Jewish” countries against
mainly Muslim peoples and communities and to
see, instead, a statement that is full of
ignorance and hatred, which was said by an
emperor more than 600 years ago is
incomprehensible – to say the least. Failing
to see that there has been a military
occupation for several decades, and how
Israel, the US, Britain, and EU, are
literally starving a whole population in
Gaza and, instead, recite an ugly and false
statement, means – in effect – pulling the
church out of this world and rendering it
irrelevant to those who suffer. The
crimes in Gaza are the making of the
“Jewish” state with full support from
“Christian” US, Canada, EU, and Britain.
Don’t take my word for it. Please read what
Mr. John Dugard, UN special rapporteur on
Palestinian human rights, who was sent
recently on a fact-finding mission to Gaza.
He said that Israel is largely to blame for turning Gaza into ‘a prison’ and
‘throwing away the key’. He said,
"Israel violates international law as
expounded by the Security Council and the
International Court of Justice and goes
unpunished … [while] the Palestinian people
have been subjected to economic sanctions -
the first time an occupied people has been
so treated". He also criticized Canada,
Europe and the US for the deteriorating
situation in Gaza, a situation that resulted
from “Israeli military raids, blockades and
demolitions… I hope that my portrayal...
will trouble the consciences of those
accustomed to turning a blind eye and a deaf
ear to the suffering of the Palestinian
people" (it is worth mentioning that Mr.
Dugard is a South African national and won
his reputation as a civil rights lawyer
during the apartheid era in the 1980s). You
don’t even have to believe Mr. Dugard’s
words; you can go and personally see the
tremendous destruction and suffering that
are inflicted on people in Gaza (and it
would be for you to continue and visit Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Lebanon). When claims are
so contrary to what is happening on the
ground, one is deceiving self and others –
except those who are suffering. One can fool
faculty, scholars, and students in
universities, but not people who see their
communities being destroyed and shattered by
“smart” weapons. During the past 200 years,
there is no Arab or Islamic country in the
region that was not bombarded, by either
“Christian” or “Jewish” armies. Ignoring
this and searching for a statement such as
the one you quoted need a lot of
explanation. To explain it the way your
office did – as a way to create dialogue –
added insult to injury; it is total
disrespect for the intelligence of people.
The above recalls words of Black Hawk, a
Sauk chief (1832), "How smooth must be the
language of the whites, when they can make
right look like wrong and wrong look like
right”.
Probably, because you never lived under
military occupation, “occupation” does not
mean much to you; it is a word in the news.
I lived under Israeli military occupation
most of my life. When people in the West
talk about “terror” and “insecurity” as if
they are a new phenomenon, they seem to be
totally ignorant of the terror and
insecurity their nations have caused to
inhabitants of 5 continents for 5 centuries,
often to the level of wiping out whole
civilizations! Occupation of Iraq is another
type of Holocaust where instead of burning
people in furnaces, they are burned in their
homes by smart weapons!
There is a saying that if your house is made
of glass, you don’t throw stones at others.
The history of western countries and
organizations makes it unwise for a
westerner to throw stones at others. What is
even more troubling to me is the fact that
what you said is contrary to statements by
Jesus – as I know and understand them. One
statement that I was always inspired by is,
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in
your brother’s eye and pay no attention to
the plank in your own eye? How can you say
to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out
of your eye,’ when all the time there is a
plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the plank out of your own eye, and then
you will see clearly to remove the speck
from your brother’s eye.” (Mathew 7: 3-5) I
wish you had followed Jesus’ wisdom and said
that you want to try to take the planks that
fill Christian eyes, and hope that others
would do the same and remove the planks from
their eyes so that we would all then see
each other more clearly and humanly. That
would have created dialogue of a different
nature, much more in harmony with Christ’s
message and spirit. I was also hoping that
you followed Jesus’ example and said that if
Christians remain silent in the face of what
is happening to peoples in Palestine, Iraq,
Lebanon, and Afghanistan then the very
stones would cry out.
The attempt to silence Palestinians and
Lebanese is similar to the story when the
Pharisees wanted to silence Jesus’ disciples
by asking him, ‘Teacher, rebuke thy
disciples!’ ‘I tell you,’ he replied, ‘if
they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.’”
(Luke 19: 39-40) A
third statement by Jesus that is also
relevant here, and which I feel your
statement was not in harmony with is, “Do
not judge, or you too will be judged. For in
the same way you judge others, you will be
judged, and with the same measure you use,
it will be measured to you.” (Mathew 7: 1-2)
The following indigenous American story is
relevant here. An indigenous grandfather
told his grandson that inside each of us
there are two wolves fighting: the wolf of
fear and hatred and the wolf of love and
peace. The grandson asked, “Which wolf will
win?” The grandfather replied, “Whichever
one we feed.” It is unfortunate, dear Pope
that you chose to feed the wolf of hatred
and greed. This seems to be in line with
what happened during the past 500 years.
When people ran to greet Columbus and his
companions with love, peace, open arms, and
hospitality, Columbus wrote in response: “They
would make fine servants. With fifty men we
could subjugate them all and make them do
whatever we want…” Later he wrote:
"Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives
victory to those who follow His way over
apparent impossibilities.” The Native
Americans were nurturing the wolf of love
and peace; the Europeans fed the wolf of
destruction and hatred. (It is instructive
to read what Bartolome De Las Casas – a
Dominican brother – wrote in 1542 as an
account of what happened.) I wish that you
had fed in your speech the wolf of love and
peace. I say this because the result of what
you said will lead to harming Christians in
the region more than any other group. Your
words may sound academic and harmless to
some people, but to us they will do what the
first Crusades have done. Almost a thousand
years ago, your predecessors harmed our
existence in the region tremendously. Today,
you seem to be doing the same. In the not
so-distant-future, if you visit Jerusalem,
you may have to bring with you some
Christians if you care to have an audience
in the churches you will speak at; because
Jerusalem will be empty of Christians!
When Muslims came to Jerusalem, not one in
the city was killed, and not one was forced
to convert. Until the times of the Crusades,
the majority of the population in greater
Syria remained Christian. There were no
attempts to force people to become Muslim. A
central commandment in Islam is laa
ikraaha fiddeen which means “no coercion
in religion”. If certain groups today
violate this commandment and try to force
Islam on others, it is an abuse of Islam and
not intrinsic to it – similar to how some
abuse Christianity. As Karen Armstrong says,
“Until the 20th century, Islam was a far
more tolerant and peaceful faith than
Christianity. Qur'an strictly forbids any
coercion in religion and regards all rightly
guided religion as coming from God; and
despite the western belief to the contrary,
Muslims did not impose their faith by the
sword… The extremism and intolerance that
have surfaced in the Muslim world in our own
day are a response to intractable political
problems - oil, Palestine, the occupation of
Muslim lands… and the west's perceived
‘double standards’ - and not to an ingrained
religious imperative… As we see the violence
- in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon - for which we
bear a measure of responsibility, there is a
temptation, perhaps, to blame it all on
‘Islam’. But if we are feeding our prejudice
in this way, we do so at our peril… The
Muslim world with… countries… directly
occupied by Western troops does not need to
be reminded of the language of the Crusades.
In a world suffering from environmental
degradation, poverty, hunger, repression,
the Pope chooses to insult the founder of
another faith.”
* * *
Christ was not on the side of Christians
against others but on the side of people
against those who were crushing people.
Although fights sometimes take forms that
seem to be between Christians and Muslims,
or between Muslims and Jews, or whatever;
the real struggle through history has been
between people and communities on the one
hand, and those who want to rob and control
them on the other. Talking about clash of
civilizations, or even dialogue among
civilizations, is a distraction from the
real problem. The main issue is choosing
between being on Caesar’s side or on
people’s side; it is between people/
communities and power, control,
winning, and greed. Jesus said, “It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God” (Mathew 19:24) Those who are
fooled to think that it is a clash of
religions or civilizations should look more
carefully: the powers that are trying to
crush Islam today were crushing Nicaragua in
the 1980s – a country that is predominantly
Christian, even Catholic! And before that,
the region within Southeast Asia (Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam, etc), which is
predominantly Buddhist, was devastated by
the same Caesars. And long before that, the
inhabitants and civilizations in three
continents were almost completely wiped out
(they were neither communist nor Muslim).
The onslaught is on peoples and communities
and not on a particular religion or group,
although it takes this form sometimes. A
main message of Jesus is “love one another”.
He said it to all peoples and not only to
Christians. When on the cross, he asked God
to forgive the soldier who was stabbing him,
but he had a different attitude towards
moneylenders at the temple, where he carried
a whip and pushed them out. For me, the most
consistent aspect of Jesus’ message was the
fact that he always chose to be on people’s
side. It was almost an obsession, which he
expressed in many ways: love one another;
love your enemies; if you say you love God
but hate your neighbor, you are a liar; see
and correct what is wrong in you before you
point out what is wrong in others; if
someone hit your cheek, turn the other; the
one among you without sin, cast the first
stone; and so on. Exactly for this reason,
Christ was condemned by all powers of his
times, both local and distant powers. We
don’t know of a single power in his time
that did not want to see him killed. It is
similar today: whoever takes the side of
people is condemned by all powers as we have
seen in the case of Lebanon. Put simply and
concretely, the issue for Jesus was clear:
either one chooses to be on the side of
Caesar or on the side of people. Your
statement Pope Benedict – unfortunately –
was on Caesar’s side. I was hoping that the
Vatican chose a saner path. The world needs
voices that bring sanity to it, not voices
that condemn the victims. I was hoping to
hear a different voice coming from a
Christian source calling for the end of
wars, rather than to justify and give
support to wage more wars – as I feel your
statement has given Bush, Blair, and Olmert.
Trying to interpret your statement otherwise
– as I said before – adds insult to injury.
However, it is not too late to seize the
current opportunity and regain Christ’s
spirit who declared in his sermon on the
mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the earth” (Mathew 5:5).
It is people vs. Caesar. Names change but
the logic remains the same. Today, the focus
is on Arab and Muslim peoples; several
decades ago, it was on peoples of South and
Central America and Southeast Asia, Blacks
in Africa, and Jews in Europe. Much earlier,
it was on the peoples of three continents
(the Americas and Australia). Taking the
side of people is dangerous – as the story
of Jesus testifies – but it is the only way
to bring back humanity and sanity into the
world.
I would like to address another part of the
quote in your speech: "Show me just what
Muhammad brought that was new…” In the
following, I will try to convey what I feel
is particularly characteristic of Islam, and
which has been most inspiring to me in my
life.
The first time I realized the true meaning
and spirit of al-jame’ (the mosque)
was during the first Palestinian intifada
(1987-91). When Israel shut down all
institutions in the West Bank and Gaza, the
mosque immediately regained its original
meaning and function: a public space, an
assembly place (the literal meaning of
al-jame’ in Arabic). The transformation
of mosques to spaces open for all people and
controlled by people, still inspires me
greatly. I have never experienced another
structure (neither universities nor churches
nor clubs nor societies) that had the same
feeling/ environment that I felt in mosques
during the first intifada. They
became welcoming places where people of all
backgrounds met and ran their affairs.
Whether people needed a place to teach,
heal, inform, take care of the wounded, or
distribute food, mosques played that role in
a natural way. In contrast, churches were
not transformed to such a space – probably
because churches belong to denominations,
not to people.
Another aspect of Islam that I am inspired
by is the idea of ijtihad – putting
an effort to understand verses in Qur’an in
light of one’s life, experiences, and
realities. It refers to the right and duty
of every Muslim to independently and
personally investigate meanings, which – as
an educator – I believe would be a wonderful
rule in the practice of education.
A third inspiration is related to al-Hajj
(pilgrimage to Mecca). It is an annual
international gathering that has been taking
place for almost 1400 years! People are not
invited by an organizing committee or an
authority but by God personally! No one
attends in lieu of another; every person
represents oneself. There are no delegates.
By wearing simple and similar clothes,
people lose all signs of where they came
from, or what their positions are, and
become simply the persons they are. For
almost 1400 years, millions of people have
been meeting every year on equal footing and
interacting in a free and honest way. This
spirit was violated for the first time by
the modern concepts of institutions,
organizations, and national governments all
of which started interfering with people’s
free movement and open interaction. How
different such a gathering is from
international conferences today! I would
definitely recommend that organizers of
international conferences put effort to try
to embody this spirit in their conferences.
The Islamic prayer is another aspect that
fascinates me in Islam, especially in
today’s world. To ‘unplug’ oneself – five
times a day – from the routines of modern
living and to connect with God, with the
cosmos, and with one’s inner soul, is so
much needed in the modern world. In s sense,
the Islamic prayer nicely combines spiritual
and physical exercises (similar in some ways
to yoga practices) and, thus, forms part of
what modern people need – especially those
who sit all day in classes, offices, or the
like.
A fifth aspect that I loved while growing up
was the call to prayer in the mornings.
Because of my age, I lived many years
hearing the call for prayer in the morning
through human voices. It was beautiful,
soothing, and spiritual. What ruined that
beauty was technology, through replacing
human voices by loudspeakers.
One of the most misunderstood aspects of
Islam is jihad. If you search the
whole early literature of Islam, you would
not find the concept of holy wars as war
against other religions. The Crusaders
brought the concept. When Prophet Muhammad
was asked about the best form of jihad,
he replied, “Saying a word of truth in the
face of an unjust ruler” – in today’s
language, ‘speaking truth to power’. In this
sense, Jesus embodied the spirit of jihad
in many positions: in challenging the
Pharisees and rulers in Jerusalem; in
confronting the moneylenders in the temple;
in addressing those in power as hypocrites…
Another aspect (shared by most peoples in
traditional societies) is the fact that none
of the Muslim families I know ever put a
member of the family in an elderly home. An
elder is given the center place at home;
s/he becomes the center of attention, love,
and respect.
Another aspect that fascinates me about
Islam – which I wish churches have – is how
old mosques in big cities are open for all
people as hospitable places where, in
addition to praying, people can sit, read,
discuss, even sleep if the person is tired
and it is hot outside, and where families
bring their children to play in the mosque
yard. I experienced this in the old Mosque
in Damascus, Syria and in al-Qarawiyyeen
Mosque in Fez, Morocco. It was true about
al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem before the
British occupied Palestine after WWI and put
regulations where certain days were allotted
to Muslims, others to Christians, and others
to Jews. This practice was deepened under
Israeli occupation.
One last aspect… When Muslims realized that
they were losing in Granada, Spain, they
offered to leave the city and keep Granada
beautiful. Granada is still beautiful. When
the Israelis left Yamit in 1981 (a city they
built in Sinai), they destroyed it
completely. When the Americans realized they
were losing in Vietnam, they poisoned as
much of the land as they could. Does this
tell you anything about Islam, dear Pope
Benedict?
It is probably worth mentioning also that
during 1300 years of Muslim rule, many
things were developed – except weapons. It
is true about most nations outside modern
West.
The above are what I experienced as
inspiring original aspects that Islam
brought. There are of course other aspects
that other people experience. There is no
culture that has no beauty in it (and
naturally some drawbacks too). Not to see
what is beautiful in others says something
about the beholder rather than about what is
seen.
I want now to follow on a promise I made
earlier: to tell stories that convey the
spirit of Christ as manifested in my
parents’ world. The first story is about my
father when, in the 1930s, he agreed with my
uncle to open a grocery store in Jerusalem.
The only condition my father had was not to
sell cigarettes or alcohol. He refused to
sell them not because there was a law
against selling them, not because it was
against custom, and not because of research
then that proved they were harmful, but
because his faith forbade him to do harm to
people. Watching smokers cough, as a result
of smoking, was enough to tell him it was
harmful. My uncle tried to persuade my
father otherwise, but failed.
The second story happened much later, in
1978. My father came back after a
demonstration in Ramallah where he saw two
Israeli soldiers holding a little boy by his
hair and smashing his face against the wall.
He stopped the car and went down. One
soldier pointed his gun at him and ordered
him to get back in his car and leave. He
came home very disturbed and his face was
red. I will never forget his comment after
he told us what he saw: “these cannot be
Jews”. In a sense, he was defending Judaism
against the behavior of the Israeli
soldiers!
The third story is about a practice that was
common among Palestinian Christian women
from Jerusalem who could not conceive, so
they would go to Hebron (an Islamic town),
to pray under the tree of Abraham (a Jewish
symbol) to Christ! Living the three
religions in one practice is an instance of
aesthetic harmonious relations. Such
practice is alien to having a “pure”
identity. No person is pure anything; every
person is a unique combination of many
“worlds”, every person can be “home” for
several worlds that live together in a
harmonious way within the person.
Fourth story: al-Khader is a village
near Bethlehem. Al-Khader is the name
of a saint who is revered by both Muslims
and Christians in Palestine. The village is
inhabited by Muslims but has a church that
carries the name of the saint. Both Muslims
and Christians celebrated al-Khader’s
day inside the church. Some Muslims even
baptized their children as a form of
blessing. That practice is a good example of
respect and recognition towards others,
rather than of tolerance and assimilation.
People interacted with one another in a way
that transcended the difference between them
without dissolving them into one shapeless
“whole”. It is a beautiful example of
harmonious relations. Every person kept
his/her beliefs but when they met, there was
a lot that they shared together. The church
did not belong to one group but was a space
where relations among people were nurtured
and deepened. [Unfortunately, these
relations and practices have been
disappearing, and thought of as backward, by
educated Muslims and Christians who perceive
such practices as a sign of ignorant
illiterates!]
* * *
Finally, I would like to say a word about
why I think Islam seems to be more alive and
inspiring in today’s world, and makes more
sense to many people than either
Christianity or Judaism. Put simply and
concisely, it is because in today’s world,
Islam in many places is perceived as being
on the side of people, while Christianity
and Judaism are taking the side of the
Caesars. (This also explains why communism
was popular in the 1950s and 1960s: it was
perceived as being on the side of people).
As I mentioned earlier, it is worth
differentiating between people’s Islam/
Christianity/ Judaism/ communism and
institutional Islam/ Christianity/ Judaism/
communism. Experiences that helped me
understand people’s religions stem from how
Christianity was manifested in the lives of
people like my mother, and from how Islam
was manifested in the first intifada.
In both cases, people did not need
professionals to guide them; people felt
free, and they trusted themselves to
understand and act. Religion meant that
connecting with God and doing good do not
need a mediator. People’s Islam today
inspires people at the personal and
community levels, and it is the one that is
least connected to power. This is the secret
of its vitality, inspiration, and the hope
people draw from it. It gives its believers
freedom to interpret it in light of their
realities. People who carry the spirit of
Christ in their lives or try to make sense
of Christianity in their daily lives and
contexts (i.e. those who take the side of
people) are being disvalued, suppressed,
killed or co-opted by centers of powers that
try to monopolize what Christianity is.
Oscar A. Romero is one of the greatest
symbols of Christian love and solidarity.
“As Archbishop of El Salvador, Father Romero
was a source of strength and hope for the
poor and the oppressed of his country. He
worked with and for them, taking their
struggles as his own. Father Romero wrote
and spoke passionately about the need for
Christians to work for justice, and he
frequently faced threats and danger from
those opposed to his ideas. On March 24,
1980, while celebrating the Eucharist,
Archbishop Romero was shot and killed at the
altar by a death squad assassin... Because
of his courageous stand for justice, he
became a martyr not only for poor
Salvadorans but also for all people
struggling to overcome oppression and
poverty. Today, his sermons are read as
powerful reminders of Christians' obligation
to fight for a just society. The example of
Romero's courageous life and death continue
to inspire those who struggle for human
dignity and justice”. Another person who
embodied in his life people's Christianity
is Archbishop Ernesto Cardenal of Nicaragua,
who was disliked by CIA and the church for
his activities with the poor, mainly through
his poetry that expressed his love of people
and gave voice to the voiceless. A third
person is Leonardo Boff, a priest in Brazil,
who was officially silenced by the Vatican
for eleven months in the mid-eighties as the
result of his publishing books that had an
ideological alignment with liberation
theology, which evolved following the 1968
Second Latin American Bishops Conference,
and called the Church to engage itself in
the political and economic struggles of poor
people.
I mentioned earlier how people’s
Christianity in Palestine is practically
wiped out. Similarly, Judaism that, during
the 18th and 19th
centuries, was a main voice on the side of
people lost that spirit with the rise of
Zionism. Today, an independent and
freethinking Jew is labeled as self-hating
Jew. The same is true about any Christian
who stands today on the side of Muslims, who
are victims of “Christian” or “Jewish”
armies: he is labeled as misled at best. The
Palestinian movement that was perceived for
decades to be on the side of people is
losing its inspiration as it increasingly
serves Caesars. In other words, Islam’s
aliveness and inspiration today stem from
the fact that it is perceived – by people
who are dominated by foreign armies – as a
religion that is taking the side of people.
Thus, the “secret” to attract people to a
religion is not related to the marketing,
recruiting skills or material incentives but
to whether that religion is perceived as
being on the side of Caesar or on the side
of people. People can easily tell the
difference. It is worth mentioning that
Jesus felt the pain of people – he lived in
the midst of people and felt exactly what
they were going through. He never lived in
an ivory privileged tower. Any Christian who
carries his spirit today would be on the
side of Muslims who are currently
experiencing tremendous suffering and
destruction at the hands of those who
proclaim themselves as the guardians of
Christianity and Judaism!
You go to mosques today, they are packed
with people (please see the attached picture
of Muslims who were risking their lives by
climbing the apartheid wall that Israel
built around Palestinians in order to go and
pray in the mosque in Jerusalem in Ramadan).
In contrast, churches are becoming
increasingly deserted. The reason is not
that Christians are less interested, but
because anything that is institutionalized
becomes repulsive. A good part of Islam –
especially within the Shi’a tradition – is
still not institutionalized. It dwells in
the hearts of people more than in
institutions. A consequence of
institutionalizing religion is robbing
people of their dignity. Dignity and power
do not go together. In today’s world,
people’s Islam provides dignity to many
people.
It is time for westerners to realize and
accept a most obvious fact in the world
today (one that is crucial to bring back
sanity and peace into the world): western
civilization is one way, not the only way
and – for many – not the best way. One step
you could take, dear Pope, in this regard,
and as a start, is to reinstate the
interfaith initiatives inaugurated by your
predecessor, John Paul II; it is desperately
needed in today’s world. Another step is to
add your voice against the wars that are
planned ahead.
What Jesus brought very strongly 2000 years
ago into the world is love, freedom, faith
in people, and responsibility (in the sense
of compassion and refusing to do harm to
anyone or anything) – all of which are
contrary to the logic of institutions and
big organizations. The freedom that Jesus
advocated was freedom from rules and laws
that are inhuman and harmful to people,
which are usually guarded by institutions
and professionals. The love he spoke about
was “love one another”; it is a commandment
for all people, and is higher than any other
commandment. But love, freedom, and
responsibility are meaningless if one does
not have faith in people. Jesus’ limits to
freedom were not laws of a state or rules of
an institution but the love and
responsibility among people. Feeding the
wolf of love, peace, and justice – in each
one of us – is the challenge we face and, in
particular, for the church – if it is going
to reside again in people’s hearts and ways
of living.
I submit this with respect… and hope,
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