Images of Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa
Images and trends of Christian-Muslim relations in Africa are as complex as one would imagine. We have generally speaking images of cooperation and collaboration and images of tensions and conflicts. In the West African States of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and the Gambia where Muslims are overwhelmingly the majority, and countries like Ghana and Togo, which have Christian majorities, there are generally good relations between adherents of the two religions. In the same region, Nigeria that has nearly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, violent conflicts erupt from time to time that involve Christians and Muslims fighting against one another. Liberia and Sierra Leone where Christians and Muslims are known to have collaborated to bring about peace, there are sometimes sporadic violent conflicts especially in Liberia.
Moving eastwards to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which have had relative peace between Christians and Muslims, they are currently facing challenges on issues related to constitutional making where questions are being asked whether Islamic Courts that deal with Family Law of marriage, divorce and inheritance known as Khadi Courts should be entrenched in the countries constitutions. The issue has pitted some of the Christian communities against the Muslim communities in Kenya at the moment. Tension recently heightened when three high court judges ruled over a previous case that the Khadi courts in the previous constitution were unconstitutional. Moving south, where Christians are overwhelmingly the majority it can be said without any fear of contradiction the two communities currently live along side one another in peace apart from a few skirmishes, which took place in Malawi sometime back.
Several factors contribute to violent confrontations. It is undoubtedly clear that political, economic, ethnic and social issues usually form the foundations for broader conflict, which religious differences aggravate and continues to live a life of its own. For example in countries where Christians and Muslims are not at peace with one another, Muslim activism in aggressively propagating their faith and advocating for Islamic Law (Shariah), to be introduced in all spheres of life are usually the cause. Similarly, Christian evangelists with extreme views and methods that have Muslims as their target, usually also cause such violent confrontations.
In countries where there is peace and peaceful coexistence: political, economic, social and ethnic factors are usually moderated to avoid hate speech, and religious activism from both Christians and Muslims, kept in check by both political and religious leaders. From the religious perspective t can be said that Islamic radicalism and Christian fundamentalism are not yet deep rooted, or have not yet been allowed to get out of hand.
What is the Christian perspective on these tensions in the year that we celebrate the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh 1910?
In the commission reports written in preparation of Edinburgh 1910 we find an understanding of Islam highly progressive of its days. Christianity was considered the pinnacle of religion as such, which indirectly indicated that other religions provided answers too, although confused and distorted, to the call of God. Islam and other religions expressed accordingly some valuable experiences, amongst which can be mentioned “direct accountability of man to God, and “the noble equality of all men tin the sight of God.” Christianity was superior, though, since it provided an answer to the “deeprooted … need of the soul of man,” thereby fulfilling the aspiration for God and spirituality inherent in Islam and other religions.
Today we know that Christianity has not supplanted other religions in Africa as was envisaged. Christianity has spread with increasing speed, and in 2009 the estimation is that 447 million of the continents nearly 1 billion inhabitants are Christians. But so has Islam, and from the Muslim side it is indicated in 2008 that there are around 441 million Muslims in the Continent. So the interreligious relation between Muslims and Christians is that of neighbours and of rivals. Neighbours because there is no country in Africa where you cannot find Christians and Muslims living along side one another as majorities or even tiny minorities. Rivals because the two religions are missionary in character that seek to make converts from among one another and from adherents of African Traditional Religion(s) (ATR).
To put it in a historical perspective, the genesis of the rivalry was the focus on reaching out to the large third party, viz the traditional believers. Today this rivalry is more complicated as it covers political issues as well, thus making the quest for political power to find an ally in religion – a bad disguise that could lead to a clash of religions. It is by far too simple, though, to understand the political tensions in terms of religion alone. We do not neglect the fact that Christians as well as Muslims suffer and die in conflicts across the continent, but we warn against understandings formulated in one-liners since it does little to help the people suffering, and rather turns confrontations into deadlocks. If we want to progress creating peaceful relations between Christians and Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa we need to call for realism both regarding the relationship and the challenges ahead of us.
In the early 20th century the religious situation was determined by the colonial powers and their policies for the nations they occupied. The major colonial authorities had different policies regarding religions. In the French colonies with a sizeable Muslim population, the colonial authorities actively prevented Christian mission activity and proselytizing among the Muslims, afraid of the trouble it may raise. At the same time the French colonial authorities formulated a policy of accommodation with Islam and Muslim leadership, seeking to turn Islam from a threat into a support of colonial power. With regard to the British colonies, Christians and Muslims enjoyed comparatively more religious freedom than in other colonial areas allowing both a variety of Christian and Muslim missions to operate in their territories. The British policy of ‘Indirect Rule’, however, which enabled them to rule through traditionally existing authorities, also allowed the colonial authorities to form blocs of no-go-areas for missionaries to predominantly Muslim areas. This was the case in Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Sudan, and to some extent Zanzibar.
With this background it is very interesting to note that Christians and Muslims cooperated in the nationalist movements across the continent, which eventually led to the freedom of colonial territories in the 1960’s. In Ghana for example Muslim leaders teamed up with the Christian leader Kwame Nkrumah in the fight for independence in the 1950’s, which allowed Nkrumah to become the first elected president of Ghana in 1957. On a national level this cooperation was witnessed by the formation of Tanzania by the union of the Muslim dominated Republic of Zanzibar with the independent state of Tanganyika in 1964.
Finally, we may point to the establishment of the “Islam in Africa Project (IAP)” in 1959, which today is known as the Programme of Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa abbreviated as PROCMURA. PROCMURA is the first organizational expression of a continent wide surge towards building relations between Christians and Muslims. The establishment of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) in 1963 provided institutional basis for PROCMURA’s work, and today the AACC draws on the wealth of experience of PROCMURA. The issuing of the document Nostra Aetate in 1965, at the end of the Second Vatican Council is by no doubt a watershed of Christian-Muslim relations worldwide of which Africa is no exception.
The two guiding principles of PROCMURA have remained largely the same even after 50 years of its history. The first principle calls churches to faithful witness to the Gospel in an interfaith environment of Christians and Muslims, respecting the spirit of good neighbourliness, while the second principle calls for Christian constructive engagement with Muslims for peace and peaceful coexistence. The main achievement of PROCMURA might very well be to present viable and numerous experiences of a middle ground with no contradiction between faithful and responsible Christian witness and the work towards building mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims for peaceful co-existence. This middle ground is, we firmly believe, the real ground for fruitful Christian-Muslims encounters in the African continent now and in the foreseeable future!
This middle ground is the essence for attending to pressing challenges in Christian Muslim relations in Africa.
The first challenge to face has to do with the very understanding of faith. While most proponents of Christianity and Islam would agree that their own religious tradition is a tradition of peace, it is also a fact that it is the behaviour of proponents of each religion that increases tensions and strife. The main problem is not in the field of ideology, but in the field of ethics. Claiming that the problem only is located in the field of metaphysics and religion is a modern way of escapism, i.e. fleeing responsibility to assist in solving very real socio-economic problems. It is exactly to escape from reality to presume that the tensions and problems we face between religions only are expressions of the spiritual realm, and therefore must find their solution in the beyond or in methods legitimized by the irrational facts of faith.
What is more, the attitude of escapism prevents us taking a firm stance against violence in the name of religion. We do not call Christians to assume a position, as if we were allowed to criticize Islam or the Muslims. The critical stance against injustice and violence is primarily a stance against our own fellow believers, who do wrong. We should be very concerned to open ourselves for critique before we point critically at others. We can only hope that the others feel the same.
At the same time as we refuse to understand tensions in terms of metaphysics only, we staunchly refuse an understanding of Christian Muslim relations in Africa only in terms of relations, as if all vertical dimensions could be dissolved in a horizontal perspective. Christians and Muslims alike oppose reducing spirituality to relationality, claiming that it ruins true faith, neglecting true worship.
Contrary to the post-modern solution it is of paramount importance in the African situation to maintain a focus on relations together with a firm “ground” in God’s absolute superiority. Only thus, with a solid transcendental aspect, is the temptation avoided to take the position of God, which is detrimental to faith as well as to peace. The solution to the tensions witnessed is not to eliminate religion, it is rather to learn the mature art of walking on two legs: living out a faithful witness to the Gospel combined with striving to live harmoniously with differences of faith, even the offending ones.
Johnson Mbillah
Henrik Sonne Petersen