Recently I read 'Nous avons tant de choses a nous dire' ('We have so much to say to each other'), a book by a French Catholic priest, Fr Christian Delorme, and a young teacher of Moroccan descent, Rachid Benzine, who lives in the Paris area (Editions Albin Michel 1997). Some chapters are written jointly and some separately. The real gem is a chapter entitled 'Tender Jesus'. It is the work not of the priest but of the Muslim. One day, when he was 17, his eye fell on a passage from a book which had fallen from a shelf: 'For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink...'
From this first unexpected find and subsequent bedazzlement, Benzine develops a passion for this Jesus whom the Qur'an calls 'our master, the prophet Aissa', and whose compassion, humility and indeed tenderness he is thrilled suddenly to discover. So the Muslim leads the reader on to discover Jesus through fresh eyes. He extracts from the Gospels the most delicate poetry and notices what we have often ceased to discern: 'Jesus's loving regard transforms. It is a call. It is unconditional. Jesus is with those he meets like the sun with the rose bud. The sun does not say to the rose bud: "Once you have opened I shall shine on you!" It is because it shines that the bud can open out.' Again, he writes: 'Let us see, with Jesus, the butterfly inside the caterpillar, the potential saint in the prostitute, the brother in every man we meet.' And discovering this central character from another religion reinforces his own faith.
COURAGE
We are touched by such words. However, Delorme and Benzine's book does not come during a honeymoon period between France and North Africa or Europe and Islam. The French continue to be traumatized by the attacks perpetrated by Islamic groups on French soil in the last few years. The security services remain on top alert. Terrorist gangs continue to be pursued and arrested in several European cities. France also lives with particular intensity into the horror of the massacres in Algeria which originally targeted French people. And the many cases of violence in French suburbs and towns are not unconnected with the reality of French and North African communities living side by side.
Such tensions only make Benzine's contribution the more striking. At a time when, like it or not, European countries are becoming crucibles of different religions and cultures, the example of this young Muslim raises a question. Have we the courage to go out and learn about the faith of our neighbour, of someone who is different from us but no less our brother? Are we ready to accept that our pool of deep convictions can be enlarged and enriched by what we had categorized as not our concern or rejected as hostile?
A few friends and I recently spent an evening with a group of Tunisians living in Paris. Several of them have been attracted by Muslim fundamentalism and even suffered for their convictions. We wanted to understand better what they felt about the misunderstandings and conflicts affecting relations between Europe and Islam. The sincerity and even humility of the replies to our questions moved us deeply. As might have been expected, they expressed - but with a tact we appreciated - their resentment at the humiliating way certain French officials sometimes treat immigrants. They also talked of their distress at the marginalizing of Muslim culture in the West.
RICHES
But one of the group also told us of his preoccupation with the breakdown of relations between generations in the French Muslim population. Another expressed regret that the Muslim community was not more concerned about building Europe, since it had its own contribution to make there. He feels the need for a European Muslim identity to be worked out. A third was sorry that the Muslim population had not so far succeeded in making a coherent contribution to France's national institutions.
Finally one of them asked me privately whether Christianity was advancing. How to reply when there is clearly a growing separation of Western Europe from its Christian roots? But his question was not a trap. He sees the parallel strengthening of Christianity and Islam as a condition of survival for mankind.
What riches from a conversation! I am encouraged and humbled. To be able to talk freely and without inhibition with people I did not know the day before--what a gift!
There is much talk these days of interfaith dialogue. This dialogue is necessary, even when there is deadlock and incompatibility. But there is also the simple down to earth contact with the other person. And that can be for any one of us, in the train going to work, in the pub or with the person sweeping the street.
After all, we only communicate well with those with whom we want to communicate.
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