Islamic Leader Calls for Cooperation
The voice of Christian churches in the West – the “people of the message” – has not been heard loudly enough in challenging forces of secularism and globalization, one of the chief leaders for Sunni Muslims around the world told a Christian Reformed Church delegation this week.
Looked at in this manner, the Sunni leader told the delegation, Christians and Muslims should not be enemies. Rather, they should join forces to identify and resist the challenges of godless modernism, secularism, materialism, and globalism.
The CRC delegation traveled to Egypt last week to see firsthand how the denomination’s newest ministry endeavor is evolving since that country underwent a revolution two years ago that toppled longtime autocratic ruler President Hosni Mubarak.
While there, they met with Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar University in Cairo. They assumed that it would be a “meet and greet,” says Peter Vander Meulen, the CRC’s director of the Office of Social Justice.
“But it turned into nearly an hour-long dialogue with the Grand Imam personally as well as an hour follow-up session with his chief of inter-religious dialogue. It is clear that the Grand Imam found our group to be a worthy use of his time -- and that feeling was mutual.”
Members of the group raised significant issues, eliciting thoughtful and sometimes surprising exchanges on issues as diverse as religious freedom, safeguarding the rights of women, proselyting, the failings of the media, the course of the Egyptian revolution and the difficulties posed by extreme fundamentalism.
In the unexpectedly long and candid meeting, el-Tayeb
said Christianity and Islam, the world’s two largest religions, should talk together instead of being divided by hate and misunderstanding.
“It is dialogue between us -- based on respect for our differences, knowledge of each other’s cultures and traditions, awareness that none of us have a monopoly on absolute truth, and an honest search for complementarity -- that is our calling as people of faith,” el-Tayeb is quoted by members of the delegation as saying.
“We should not fall into the trap of seeing dialogue as theological dispute but rather discuss ways in which we can find agreement on common ethical principles rooted in the will of God.”
The CRC delegation is led by Rev. Joel Boot, executive director of the denomination. “When I shook hands with the Imam to say good-bye our eyes met,” Boot said. “It was clear that we had connected in an extraordinary way.
“I think – I hope – I saw intimations of a continuing bond of dialogue, struggle, grace, and transformation.”
Ahmed el-Tayeb holds one of the most prestigious theological positions in Sunni Islam. Sunni Islam is the world’s largest branch of Islam, tracing its orthodox roots directly to the life and teachings of the prophet Muhammad.
Unlike Roman Catholicism, there is no defined hierarchy in Sunni Islam, but the Grand Imam of al-Azhar University is looked to by many Sunni Muslims around the world for leadership, especially in religious matters.
Anne Zaki and Naji Umran, who live and work for Christian Reformed World Missions in Egypt, are the primary organizers of the tour and arranged the rare meeting with the Grand Imam.
As CRC staff, Umran and Zaki are the primary teachers and guides for the delegation that also includes Duncan Hanson, supervisor of mission in Europe, the Middle East and India for the Reformed Church in America.
Along with Boot, Vander Meulen, Zaki, Umran and Hanson, those on the trip include Andy Ryskamp, co-director of World Renew, the CRC’s Salaam Project training director Greg Sinclair, and Christian Reformed World Missions Canadian director Steve Kabetu.
Chicago-area businessman Dean Koldenhoven, Back to God Ministry International radio producer and host Robin Basselin, one-time World Renew literacy worker and business woman Patty Duthler, and CRWM Transformation Network leaders Joel and Jeannie Huyser are also on the trip.
Founded in 930 AD as a center of Islamic learning, al-Azhar University is one of the earliest universities in the world. Over the centuries it has evolved into a full-scale modern university with many secular subjects and degrees. Many of the Middle East’s most influential leaders are graduates of al-Azhar.
Today, it is a center of Arabic literature and Islamic learning. Its most senior scholars (the ulama) constitutes the most authoritative body in Sunni Islamic law, rendering opinions (fatwas) on Sunni life and practice.
The university and its ulama play a critical political role in Egypt as well. In the new Egyptian constitution the university’s council of scholars must give its opinion on all significant governmental legal actions and decisions before they can be implemented.
“Our meeting could not have happened at a higher level or with a more influential figure. One never knows what God has in mind for such encounters,” says Vander Meulen.
