This is a series of response to the Chawkat Moucarry's article entitled‘A Lifelong Journey with Islam’. Dr. Ng Kam Weng is one of the respondents (4) and Dr. Alex Tang is also a contributor who deals with the topic (5). As for Dr. Alex Tang, please refer to my previous posting of‘Lily's Room' dated 23 August 2007.(Lily)
The Global Conversation (http://www.christianitytoday.com)
(1) A Lifelong Journey with Islam
by Chawkat Moucarry
From childhood, I've been learning about—and witnessing to—Muslims.
How should Christians who have a passion for evangelization relate to Islam? For North Americans, the question took on new urgency in the wake of September 11. But Christians in Muslim-majority societies have dealt with the question far longer. Growing up Christian in Syria gave Chawkat Moucarry many opportunities to interact with Muslims and learn about Islam. In this installment of the Global Conversation, World Vision International's director of interfaith relations describes his commitment to both dialogue and mission.
I have never understood why some people look at dialogue and mission in either-or terms. In my experience, these words belong so much to each other that they should never be divorced. Evangelical Christians (whose theology I share) have shown an unwarranted suspicion of dialogue, simply because some have used it as a substitute for mission. Not only are the two words compatible, but they must shape each other.
I have always believed in God and Jesus Christ. Growing up in a Muslim-majority society, I knew as a child that I was different, and I gradually realized that this difference implied that I had something precious to share with my Muslim friends.
I was born into a Catholic home and was an altar boy in my early teens. I attended a missionary primary school, which gave me my first opportunity to discuss religion with my Muslim peers. However, my significant conversations about Christianity and Islam started after I moved to a government secondary school, where the majority of pupils were from working-class families. I was surprised to realize that many Muslim schoolmates were very interested to know more about Christianity and Christians. And I wanted to better understand Islam. A unique opportunity presented itself when the teacher of Islamic religious education granted me permission to attend his class. I was the only Christian there. He regularly asked me to give my views as a Christian on certain topics. These discussions extended outside the classroom.
In Paris, after I graduated in Christian theology, I felt as an Arab Christian a compelling need to relate my faith to Islam. That required me to study it. The need was reinforced after I started working for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students among Arab and Muslim students. Sometimes they would ask me challenging questions that I had not seriously considered as a theological student. Hence, it wasn't difficult for me to find research topics for my Islamic Studies dissertations at the Sorbonne.
For my first degree, I looked into the Islamic charge against the reliability of the Bible, and in my Ph.D. dissertation, I examined Islamic and Christian teachings on forgiveness. Needless to say, studying Islam unavoidably meant re-examining my major Christian beliefs, which I had often taken for granted. My work with students included setting up book tables at university campuses and leading Bible study groups, as well as speaking in public debates in France and abroad on Christianity and Islam.
For 12 years I worked for All Nations Christian College, a mission-oriented Bible college in Ware, England. I was in charge of its Islamic course, to which I invited a Muslim lecturer to contribute each year. His or her talks were one of the high spots of the course, as they provided an opportunity for a genuine and often animated interaction between students, the speaker, and me.
For three years now I have been working for World Vision, whose mission statement echoes the "mission statement" Jesus proclaimed at the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19). The Christian aid organization operates in 20 Muslim-majority countries, with Muslims composing most of the staff in places like Afghanistan, Mauritania, and Somalia. My work includes providing orientation on Christianity and Islam to all our staff. It has been fascinating to learn from each other about our respective faiths—and often about our own. Without ignoring the distinctive beliefs of each tradition, knowing our common ground enhances our work for the common good of the communities we serve.
What is dialogue?
I take dialogue to mean a deliberate effort to engage genuinely and respectfully with each other; a willingness to listen and understand; a readiness to learn and be challenged. It is also a desire to relate to, communicate with, and be understood by one another. Christian-Muslim dialogue focuses on the two faiths and their implications for individuals and communities in this life and the next.
For many centuries, Christians in the Western world have either ignored or confronted the Muslim world. Ignoring Muslims is no longer an option in our "global village," where Muslims and Christians live next to each other. Some Christians relate to Muslims in a confrontational way. They consider polemics a perfectly legitimate way to approach Islam. Polemics, as its derivation from the Greek (polemik&243;s, "of war") suggests, is about waging a war of words against Muslims by attacking their religion. This approach is counterproductive. It usually provokes a defensive response—Muslims becoming more radical in their beliefs—and often an offensive reaction too—Muslims attacking Christianity even more vehemently. A polemical engagement with Islam produces more heat than light, and is incompatible with "the gospel of peace" (Eph. 6:15), which is about reconciliation, love, and forgiveness.
Christian-Muslim dialogue often takes the form of apologetics for at least two reasons. First, Christianity and Islam make conflicting truth claims about God's revelation, which for Christians reached its climax with the coming of Jesus Christ, and for Muslims with the disclosure of the Qur'an. Second, Islam acknowledges Christianity and Judaism as God-given religions. At the same time, it rejects the core of the gospel (the divinity of Christ and his crucifixion and resurrection). Christian apologetics is about giving a defense of the faith to those who criticize it (1 Pet. 3:15). This, however, should be done with "gentleness and respect" for critics. Even in a heated debate, the Christian apologist must refrain from polemics, personal attacks, and derisive or hostile arguments about Muslims and their religion.
Welcome and witness
We often think of dialogue as verbal engagement, but this is a very narrow view. Dialogue is first of all about an open attitude toward others, a disposition that reaches out and welcomes people who are different or even antagonistic. Dialogue is a way of life. Understood this way, Christian-Muslim dialogue is an encounter at three distinct and interrelated levels. Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-26) is paradigmatic.
First, Christians and Muslims meet each other as human beings. They have much in common—physical and emotional needs, human and spiritual aspirations, joys and sorrows, hopes and struggles.
Second, they meet as monotheistic believers who share many beliefs (for example, creation, human stewardship, divine guidance, sin, forgiveness, final judgment) and ethical values (for example, moral standards, the sacredness of human life, sexual fidelity, a commitment to the poor), even though the way they think of these is not exactly the same.
Finally, Christians and Muslims claim to be God's witnesses on earth. Christians and Muslims have huge misunderstandings about each other's faith. Removing the misunderstandings is an integral part of dialogue. As we explain our faiths to one another, each community bears witness to the Creator according to its own perspective.
(2) Experiencing Dialogue
by David W. Shenk
A response to Chawkat Moucarry's 'A Lifelong Journey with Islam'
To facilitate a truly global conversation, we ask Christian leaders from around the world to respond to the Global Conversation's lead articles. These points of view do not necessarily represent Christianity Today magazine or the Lausanne Movement. They are designed to stimulate discussion from all points of the compass and from different segments of the Christian community. Please add your perspective by posting a comment so that we can learn and grow together in the unity of the Spirit.
Commending Jesus Christ is my yearning in the many opportunities for dialogue that I experience. "A Lifelong Journey with Islam" is just that kind of winsome defense for a dialogical engagement with Muslims that commends Christ. That I affirm. So rather than reiterate the themes Moucarry has developed, this response will be a reflection on some four decades of personal dialogical engagement with Muslims. My lively engagement with Muslims commenced in the early 1960s when our family joined a mission team in Somalia, which was 100 percent Sunni Muslim. We realized the calling to bear witness among Muslims would involve long-term immersion within Muslim society with a lively Christ-centered dialogical engagement.
Presence and Dialogue in a Restrictive Context: Somalia
Our mission had already been in Somalia for a decade when we arrived. The excellent schools and medical programs the mission had developed earned trust and appreciation. Then the first Somalis became believers. Their exuberant but insensitive efforts to share the treasure of the gospel brought strong repercussions. One of the mission team was killed by a self-appointed jihadist, the mission was closed for three months, and the religious freedom that the constitution of newly independent Somalia guaranteed was changed to make it illegal to propagate any religion except the "true religion of Islam." The department of education assigned faculty to teach Islam in each of our schools. While we were considered honored guests, we were greatly restricted.
Yet the Holy Spirit was not bound, and "Nicodemus" persons sought us out inquiring about the gospel. Although public dialogue was impossible, our servant ministry "was a letter from Christ" (2 Cor. 3:3) read by much of the Somali nation. We were a dialogical presence. God was very important for Somali Muslims; occasionally we sat in the tea shops in the evenings with friends; inevitably the conversation became an informal dialogue. Some of those engagements I will never forget, especially explorations of the nature of the peace of Islam in comparison to the peace of the gospel! Our Muslim colleagues had never before had the opportunity to engage Christians about their faith. Remarkably the Holy Spirit called forth unobtrusive fellowships of believers in the locations where we as well as a sister Protestant mission served.
Then a Marxist coup overturned the democratically elected government of Somalia. Before long all Westerners had to leave. It was the Marxist, not the Muslim authorities who required our mission to leave.
Presence and Dialogue in an Open and Pluralist Context: Kenya
Our family moved to Kenya, which borders Somalia to the south. Kenya is predominantly Christian, so we settled into the Somali-Muslim area of the city of Nairobi. We rented and moved into an entire apartment complex (five apartments) across the street from the Sufi Muslim mosque. The apartments became the homes for a multi-ethnic Christian community. Members of our community cultivated lively dialogical engagement with the Muslim Sufi congregation on our block.
The dialogue touched the whole community. We developed a reading room and on Saturday nights would often have events with the youth focusing on areas of interest such as wholesome sexuality. The leaders of the mosque occasionally joined us for an evening meal where we would explore core matters of convergence and divergence between Islam and the gospel. These were exceedingly candid engagements. And the Holy Spirit called into faith a fellowship of Muslim background believers, a fellowship that has experienced enormous transitions over the years, but that, nevertheless, still continues three decades later. The respectful dialogue and collegiality between the mosque and our center were vital to providing space for the emergence of a fellowship of believers.
Over time we purchased land bordering the apartment complex in order to expand and become a multi-ministry community center that touches thousands of people. Known as The Eastleigh Fellowship Center, this center is another of those "letters from Christ" that is recognized with appreciation. The nomadic ethos of Somalis means that participants in the center's programs are often transient, but a consequence is that thousands of Somalis throughout the Horn of Africa have in one way or another been served by the presence of this center. It is a dialogical presence within a significant crossroads for Muslims of North East Africa. There is one especially designated room in the center just for dialogue!
A Dialogical Bible Study
Convergent with this ministry of a witnessing presence was the development of a Bible study course for Muslims that is known as the People of God. Working with a team of Muslim background believers in Somalia, we had begun developing this course before we moved to Kenya. Now in Nairobi a notable team of eight joined hands to develop a dialogical course that was authentically biblical and truly contextual to the Muslim worldview. We invested four years in this effort. We would take the draft lessons into Muslim communities and ask their response and then revise as we heard their perplexities. The bottom line was the conviction that the gospel is good news for Muslims and that the Holy Spirit has been at work among Muslims for a long time preparing them to hear and believe that good news.
This includes some statements in the Qur'an that are signs of the gospel. That was a challenge, for, as Moucarry says, we must not distort the Qur'an by making it say something that is not faithful to its intention. For example, Jesus as Messiah in the Qur'an may open the door for dialogue. However the meaning of Messiah in the Qur'an is quite different than the biblical meaning of Messiah. So our stance was not to distort the Qur'an, but to use these hints of the gospel within the Qur'an, such as Jesus being the Messiah, as an open door for inviting Muslims to search the gospel in order to understand the biblical meaning of Jesus as Messiah.
We even sought counsel from a polemical Muslim theologian who preached on our street. He and his disciples occasionally participated in dialogical engagements with us, often over a meal. He was put off by the chapter on the Fall of Adam and Eve. So he agreed to help me write this lesson in ways that Muslims could understand what we were communicating. He concluded saying, "Although I totally disagree with the theology, I can now hear what you are saying." Seeking advice from this potential antagonist was important in trust-building with the Muslim community. We did nothing secretly.
This approach has been fruitful beyond our expectations. The four-course series is now in some 45 languages, and to our knowledge wherever it is used it has been well received by Muslims. Around the world we hear reports of many who have come to faith in Christ. This is a contextual dialogue that has caught the appreciative attention of thousands.
Peace-Building Dialogue
In a quite different approach, a Muslim professor colleague of mine at the Kenyatta University College in Nairobi joined hands with me in writing A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue. He is Professor Badru Kateregga, a Sunni Muslim from Uganda. In the first twelve chapters he shares his faith winsomely with me, a Christian. I respond to each chapter. Then in the second half I present the Christian faith and he responds to each chapter. The book is confessional, rather than an apologetic that seeks to score points. We have both been astonished at the receptivity of this book by both Muslims and Christians.
(3) Dialogue Shaping Mission Shaping Dialogue
by Evelyne A. Reisacher
A response to Chawkat Moucarry's 'A Lifelong Journey with Islam'
To facilitate a truly global conversation, we ask Christian leaders from around the world to respond to the Global Conversation's lead articles. These points of view do not necessarily represent Christianity Today magazine or the Lausanne Movement. They are designed to stimulate discussion from all points of the compass and from different segments of the Christian community. Please add your perspective by posting a comment so that we can learn and grow together in the unity of the Spirit.
I met Chawkat Moucarry 30 years ago in Paris, when we attended the same church. At that time, his article would have triggered a different response from me. I was strongly opposed to Christian-Muslim dialogue. I had witnessed heated debates in my country, France, between evangelicals and Roman Catholics on the definition of salvation, God, and the role of the church in reaching Muslims. Unfortunately, most evangelicals at that time defined dialogue simply as opposing Roman Catholic views. I believe a lot of misunderstanding in our discussions about dialogue comes from failing to explain what we mean by dialogue, which takes different meanings in different contexts.
I also believed engaging in dialogue with Muslims meant abandoning God's call to mission. Moucarry says at the beginning of his article, "The two words should never be divorced." But in my opinion at the time, someone who believed in the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ as portrayed in the Bible was wasting his/her time meeting with Muslim clerics and scholars to discuss theological issues. A recent conversation with a mission leader reveals there are still evangelicals who share that point of view. He said to me: "Show me how many churches have been planted through dialogue." Nowadays I respectfully disagree with him. Dialogue may not plant churches, but the lack of dialogue may impede church growth.
Moucarry reminds us that dialogue is not only verbal engagement. It is also a way of life. In this sense, I believe I have been engaged in dialogue since my childhood. There are, most people think, approximately five million Muslims in France. Naturally at school and in my neighborhood I made many Muslim friends. At the age of 13, after a personal decision to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I shared this experience in an informal conversation with a Muslim girl of my age. To my surprise she also decided to become his disciple. Most mission organizations would label this "evangelism," not dialogue. From that day on, I wrestled with the question of how mission and dialogue should interface: mission or dialogue, mission and dialogue, or mission as dialogue?
After university, I met several Muslim Background Believers in Paris. They were starting a fellowship to meet regularly for prayer, reading the Bible, and inviting Muslims to become followers of Jesus Christ. During 20 years I attended these fellowships and many others that they created throughout France. From these believers, I heard numerous stories of the difficulties and sometimes persecutions they faced in their families and communities as a result of their decision to give more importance to Jesus than Muhammad. I heard even more of these stories when I visited churches in Muslim majority countries. This made me even more reluctant to engage in Christian-Muslim dialogue. It would have looked like an act of treason to my brothers and sisters who were accused of apostasy by some of the same Muslims engaged in dialogue with Christians.
In 2001, I started teaching Islamic Studies and Intercultural Relations at Fuller Theological Seminary, in Pasadena, California. In 2003, Fuller received a federal grant for developing and organizing conflict transformation projects between evangelical Christians and Muslim communities. After an article in the Los Angeles Times reported that Fuller pledged not to offend the faith of Muslims and not to proselytize, concerned and at times angry responses from the evangelical community flooded our campus. It took a long time to explain that Fuller never gave up at any moment its commitment to share the gospel and that there were some inaccurate statements in the Los Angeles Times article. This showed me how controversial the word "dialogue" was in evangelical circles. But I am glad I participated in this project. It gave me many opportunities to share my faith in Jesus Christ. As we proceeded, the dialogue became an opportunity for evangelicals and Muslim scholars and clerics to discuss their core beliefs, share their grievances, and develop healthier relationships. It became a unique opportunity for Muslims to know evangelicals. They admitted when we first met that few had a deep understanding of evangelicalism. It also gave me the opportunity to better understand them.
When several of my long-term evangelical friends doubted I could faithfully share the gospel in words and actions while engaging in dialogue, even for the sake of peacemaking, I became deeply convinced of the need for a wider discussion between evangelicals on the definition of interfaith dialogue. We need more opportunities for respectful conversation between evangelical proponents and opponents of Christian-Muslim dialogue. Moucarry's article serves as a useful platform for such an endeavor.
Interestingly Cape Town 2010 announces that the program will include reflections on "the case for the truth and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a pluralistic world. … As a response to the biblical reflection and consideration of the challenge, we will then recommit ourselves in declaring the Uniqueness of Jesus Christ." I am looking forward to seeing how the relationship between mission and dialogue will be defined as the global church meets in Cape Town. I hope we will hear stories from around the world. At the 2007 Missiology Lectures of Fuller Theological Seminary, which I helped organize, John Azumah, from Ghana, reminded us that "when we talk about Muslims in Africa we are not talking about immigrants, we are not talking about aliens, we are not talking about strangers, we are talking about fully fledged citizens, we are talking about people who are not just neighbors but relations, family members, cousins, and so it is a completely different dynamic when we are talking about Islam and Christian-Muslim relationships in Africa." Muslim-Christian dialogue takes different shapes throughout history and throughout the world.
In my life, dialogue and mission are now mutually influencing each other. For example, in 2008 I attended a dialogue on "Loving God and Neighbor in Word and Deed: Implications for Christians and Muslims" at Yale Divinity School, as part of the "A Common Word Between Us and You" initiative by 138 Muslim clerics. Among the topics addressed were not only theological presentations on how Muslims and Christians understand the love for God and their neighbor but also how these concepts affect the current status of churches in Muslim contexts. Enjoying coffee during the break with ministers of religious affairs, muftis or imams, provided platforms for sharing, amongst other things, experiences of Christians who live in Muslim majority countries. In my discussions at Yale (or at any other dialogue I attend) I never forget to advocate for the Christian community. Shortly after the Yale conference, I visited Christians in North Africa, who expressed to me their deep concern that while they were not allowed to meet for worship in private homes, they were not granted permits to have their own church buildings. As I bring these concerns to the dialogue table, I am not trying to distort the goal and purpose for engaging in a conversation with Muslims, which involves listening to the religious other, being open to be transformed, articulating one's own beliefs, and finding what we can share in order to live peacefully together. But I also take a seat at the dialogue table as a member of the worldwide body of Christ, including those who experience suffering in some Muslim contexts. This is how I understand mission and dialogue "shaping each other" in Moucarry's article.
(4) Building a Common Society
by Ng Kam Weng
A response to Chawkat Moucarry's 'A Lifelong Journey with Islam'
To facilitate a truly global conversation, we ask Christian leaders from around the world to respond to the Global Conversation's lead articles. These points of view do not necessarily represent Christianity Today magazine or the Lausanne Movement. They are designed to stimulate discussion from all points of the compass and from different segments of the Christian community. Please add your perspective by posting a comment so that we can learn and grow together in the unity of the Spirit.
Of late, dialogue between Muslims and Western Christian academicians has moved from defensive polemics to more constructive discourse that seeks to achieve mutual understanding. Every effort is made to set aside inaccurate stereotypes of Islam so that it is judged in the best possible light. The commitment on both sides to dialogue and to exploring how to live together based on newfound commonality has raised optimism.
Nevertheless, Christians living in Muslim majority countries remain guarded. Optimism comes naturally when one is theorizing within the safe and comfortable confines of Western universities. The fact is, Muslims are more interested in pursuing dialogue with Western Christians because dialogue confers recognition and this is what Islamic scholars want from the West. However, dialogue with local Christians is avoided as Muslims are reluctant to confer recognition to the local Christian community.
Dialogue beneath the Gothic arches of Western universities should be welcomed, but surely genuine dialogue would gain more credence if it took place at the ground level, especially in countries where Islamic authorities do not feel the need to modulate their power so as to present an acceptable face, as they would when dealing with their Western counterparts. If indeed dialogue takes place, the Islamic authorities typically set the terms of engagement, reducing it to social rituals to confirm the dominance of Islam rather than to promote mutual understanding and respect. Naturally, local Christians lose enthusiasm for "dialogue."
A case study
I shall focus on the situation in Malaysia as a case study to explain the ambivalence of Christian minority groups toward Christian-Muslim dialogue.
To begin with, Malaysian Christians are intimidated by the battery of existing laws that may be used against them if they express frank opinions in dialogue. But honesty also requires local Christians to admit to a lack of confidence arising from a shortage of trained experts who can present their case persuasively, using the language of public discourse. Consequently, Christians tend to prefer to practice their faith in private rather than to engage in open dialogue. In the process the Malaysian church ends up sounding like a feeble voice crying in the wilderness at the margin of society—or ends up having no voice at all.
Nevertheless, Christians should enter the fray of national debates regarding civil society and nation-building. Failure to do so results in a de facto surrendering of the public sphere to the dominant majority.
Effective engagement is possible only if Christians act out of a clearly defined social philosophy. In this regard, Christians must reject any political arrangement that allows Islamic officials to dominate other social institutions within society like the family, the school, and the shrine.
Christians should also realize there are different currents of Islamic intellectual movements. On the one hand, there are the Islamic officials who expect the country to be administered according to an Islamic political hierarchy and reject socially differentiated institutions on the ground that such differentiations betray the influence of Western secularism. On the other hand, the reality of the modern nation-state has persuaded some Muslims to accept that society could be structured in terms of relatively autonomous and socially differentiated institutions. Christians should seek to work with the latter to build a polity which accords social equality to both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Forging a common vision
What are some common social projects that Christians can undertake together with their Muslim neighbors? It is said that while doctrine divides, common values unite. This may be true for people working together on projects which promote social welfare. The problem here is that since Islam is favored and supported by the state, Muslim welfare activists have little desire to work together and share resources with Christians. Consequently, Christians have to do good works with their own resources until Muslims are prepared to work with them.
An area which offers greater possibility for Christians and Muslims to work together lies in the fight for social justice and human rights. The challenge for all religious communities, especially Islam, is to demonstrate that they have within themselves the ethical resources to achieve a genuine common vision for all citizens. Muslims in the West enjoy unrestricted freedom of religion. Christians should appeal to the sense of moral integrity among the more open Muslim thinkers to promote reciprocity of religious freedom so that non-Muslim minorities enjoy religious freedom comparable to the freedom enjoyed by Muslims in the West. Of course, any alliance between Christian and Muslim activists should champion the rights of all citizens regardless of their religious affiliation.
To conclude, dialogue in the Malaysian context obviously addresses a host of sensitive issues. Dialogue is not just an occasion for academic discourse. It is an ongoing negotiation of power between elites of different social-religious groups. It goes beyond exchange of abstract ideas and aims to forge alliances to build common society.
It takes much courage for anyone to critique social policy in the context of an authoritarian government. For this reason, it makes sense to begin dialogue at the informal level. The obvious advantage is that the participants are not cornered into any defensive position. Although one cannot hope for an immediate translation of agreements into just social policies through such informal channels, patient interaction is undertaken in the belief that dialogue inherently promotes peace and reduces communal tension.
This does not mean that Christians should eschew entering national debates on social issues; they should, in fact, use all opportunities available in the mass media. True, their rhetoric will have to be less direct or forceful. Indeed, their voice is often excluded by the government-controlled mass media. Nevertheless, Christians should recognize that there are still people of good will in authority and it is possible to find openings, however rare, for Christian input at the operational level in departmental planning and development of the civil services. Christians should be alert to make use of such opportunities.
Religious harmony is always a precarious blessing in pluralistic societies. It would be unrealistic to expect significant transformation of deeply held prejudices in the near future. But surely, this reality makes it all the more urgent and necessary for Christians to dialogue with their Muslim neighbors.
・Ng Kam Weng is research director for the Kairos Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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(5) Random Musings from a Doctor's Chair(http://draltang01.blogspot.com)
Global Conversation on Muslim-Christian Dialogue , 25 February 2010
by Dr. Alex Tang (Alex Tang MD is a Consultant Paediatrician in Johor Specialist Hospital in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and Director of the Spiritual Formation Institute in Malaysia. )
Christianity Today and the Lausanne movement have been conducting Global Conversation on certain important global issues recently. In March 2010, the Conversation is on
How should Christians who have a passion for evangelization relate to Islam? For North Americans, the question took on new urgency in the wake of September 11. But Christians in Muslim-majority societies have dealt with the question far longer.
Chawkat Moucarry, World Vision International's director of interfaith relations describes his commitment and mission in A Lifelong Journey with Islam.
I have never understood why some people look at dialogue and mission in either-or terms. In my experience, these words belong so much to each other that they should never be divorced. Evangelical Christians (whose theology I share) have shown an unwarranted suspicion of dialogue, simply because some have used it as a substitute for mission. Not only are the two words compatible, but they must shape each other.
David Shenks has this to contribute "My life motto as I engage in dialogue with Muslims is the same that Moucarry has highlighted (1 Pet. 3:15): Be clear in my confession of faith—Jesus is Lord. Give account of this reality to all who ask. Bear witness with gentleness and respect." more here in Experiencing Dialogue.
While dialogue seems to be the way to go, there are concerns. Evelyne A. Reisacher who had served for over 20 years as the associate director of a church-based organization in France called l'AMI, dedicated to facilitate Christian-Muslim encounters and assist Muslim Background Believers. She is assistant professor of Islamic studies and Intercultural Relations at Fuller Theological Seminary has this to say in Dialogue Shaping Mission Shaping Dialogue.
In conclusion: Has my perception of dialogue changed? Yes and no. The questions I raised prior to my first experience of dialogue in 2003 are still relevant and must be revisited each time I engage in dialogue. My commitment to Jesus Christ and the gospel has not changed. But dialogue is a constant reminder of the human face of mission: It helps us encounter Muslims as equal interlocutors worthy of being listened to and with whom we should respectfully share our beliefs.
How then does this dialogue translate to realpolitik?
Dr Ng Kam Weng, director of Kairos Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur shares about the situation in Malaysia "to explain the ambivalence of Christian minority groups toward Christian-Muslim dialogue" as a response in Building a Common Society.
Dialogue beneath the Gothic arches of Western universities should be welcomed, but surely genuine dialogue would gain more credence if it took place at the ground level, especially in countries where Islamic authorities do not feel the need to modulate their power so as to present an acceptable face, as they would when dealing with their Western counterparts. If indeed dialogue takes place, the Islamic authorities typically set the terms of engagement, reducing it to social rituals to confirm the dominance of Islam rather than to promote mutual understanding and respect. Naturally, local Christians lose enthusiasm for "dialogue."
It is not often so cut and dry about inter-faith dialogue in Muslim-majority countries as has been pointed out by Dr Ng. .
Nigeria is another country where is there had been violence between Muslims and Christians. Sunday Agang who is dean of the School of Theology and Ethics, JETS Theological Seminary in Jos, Nigeria comments on The Audacity of Dialogue.
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