Education, friendship needed to heal religious divide

The headlines coming from the Middle East – often highlighting sectarian violence and radical religious fundamentalism – are difficult for Americans to decipher, much less accept.

A Dominican priest and scholar who has spent the last 15 years running the Dominican Institute of Oriental Studies in Cairo told an audience at Tulane University March 26 that the political and religious turmoil in Egypt and other Middle East countries can be overcome, but it will take time, education and commitment to peaceful dialogue.

“Our goal is to build bridges,” said Dominican Father Jean-Jacques Pérennès, director of the institute, established by the Holy See in Cairo in 1953. “We start with two key words – study and friendship, because we need to know each other and start a conversation. Friendship is important, because if you are friends, then you can disagree and have a discussion, which is not an argument.”

Father Pérennès admitted that progress toward democracy in Egypt has been painful.

The day before he spoke at Tulane’s Myra Clare Rogers Chapel, a criminal court in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya sentenced 528 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi – 397 tried in absentia – to death. They were convicted of committing acts of violence in Minya in August 2013 after Egyptian security forces had killed hundreds while breaking up pro-Morsi rallies in Cairo and Giza.

Also last August, about 80 Christian churches were burned throughout Egypt by Islamists seeking revenge for Morsi’s ouster and the government’s attacks on Morsi’s supporters.

While the direct attack on Christian churches “certainly was a moment of persecution,” Father Pérennès said, in the “normal” course of life, Christians and Muslims have lived “quite well together” in Egypt.

“At least in the educational milieu,” Father Pérennès said. “People who are not educated are more difficult. … But we must live together. It’s important.”

Father Pérennès was a close friend of Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran, Algeria, who was assassinated in 1996 on the doorstep of his home by a bomb planted by radical Islamists. Bishop Claverie’s murder came two months after seven Trappist monks were beheaded in Tibhirine, Algeria.

Intermingled blood
Bishop Claverie died alongside his Muslim driver, Mohamed Bouchikhi, and their intermingled blood became a symbol of their shared humanity, Father Pérennès said, which transcended race, religion and ethnicity.

Father Pérennès’ book on Bishop Claverie, “A Life Poured Out,” highlighted one of the bishop’s favorite quotes: “I have acquired the personal conviction that humanity is found only in the plural.”

“That means,” Father Pérennès said, “if you are not able to dialogue, there is something wrong. He was killed for that.”

To people living in the Middle East, religious identity is more important than any other socio-economic marker, Father Pérennès said.

“You relate through your religious connections, and you cannot escape,” he said. “A Muslim becoming a Christian has to leave the country because it is very bad. … We have made it very clear we are not doing proselytism. If a Muslim wants to become a Christian, which has happened to me only twice in 15 years, I send him to someone else. Dialogue is not a hook, not a way of getting people on my side.”

Instead, similar to Bishop Claverie, Father Pérennès says the path to peaceful coexistence and promoting better understanding between Christians and Muslims lies in building personal relationships and offering education.

“Why? Because if you start in the Middle East to talk about religion, you get upset very quickly and disagree,” Father Pérennès said.

One example would be to get into a discussion about the Trinity.

“It’s idolatry to them – you are worshipping three gods,” Father Pérennès said. “No we’re not. … For us, the Quran seems to be too important in some ways. But the Quran is for Muslims what Jesus is for us. It’s the revelation of God.”

Father Pérennès said Egypt is in the midst of an educational crisis. Some public universities have enrollments of more than 200,000 students, but the universities suffer from lack of resources and low faculty pay.

“Students are sitting along the staircases,” he said. “Education means a lot of money. In a poor country, the idea of educating everyone seems to be a dream. There is a double system – a system for ‘everyone’ and then a system for the elite who can pay. For me, it’s a big issue for the future, and I would like a real debate on the issue.”

Father Pérennès said the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood is, in part, because they have suffered under various regimes for so many decades that they are reveling in their newly gained power.

“They went from somebody out of the game for decades, and they want to be back, to be sure to stay there,” Father Pérennès said. “They say Egypt is for ‘everyone,’ but now I have questions about that. I’m sorry to say, I have changed my mind about that. Maybe a strong hand can calm the situation and then allow a new political process that would give positive options.

“Muslims feel they are not safe anymore, that the modern world has many, many questions. I think this is one of the reasons for fundamentalism. When you are not relaxed, you feel threatened. We certainly need to heal the wounds of the past. This is a big issue.”

Father Pérennès is left with the centuries-old question: “Why are there different paths to God?”

“It is God’s secret,” he said, smiling. “If you were born in Saudi Arabia, you would be Muslim. If you were born in my country, you would be Christian. It’s a mystery, and we have to learn to live with it.”

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at pfinney@clarionherald.org.