Christian Discipline for Ramadan
About one in seven adults in the world this week started to observe Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month, the ninth in the Islamic calendar. Fasting during daylight hours is one of the five key Muslim rituals.
Its purpose is spiritual and Muslims are required to abstain from eating food, drink, sexual intimacy, and all temptation, to speak of hatred or hurt to anybody, every day for a month, in order to find themselves better in tune with their faith.
This is a time when Christians should be in prayer for our Islamic neighbours and work companions. The world will be better off if every Muslim is successful in their spiritual quest in Ramadan. But because thousands of Muslims will think of Jesus during this time, we should be praying for God to break forth His light into their minds, and to give us the opportunity to witness to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Some Christians cannot bring themselves to pray for Muslims, far from witnessing their faith to them. They suffer from an irrational phobia called Islamophobia – fear of Islam. I found this prevalent among members of the CDP, ACNA, and several other fundamentalist Christian organizations. It is also prevalent among people who lead public protests against Islamic Schools and the like.
The then United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan told a UN conference on Islamophobia in 2004: “When the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry, that is a sad and troubling development. Such is the case with Islamophobia.”
In 1996, the Runnymede Trust established the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia. The term was defined by the trust as “an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination”.
The Runnymede report identified eight perceptions related to Islamophobia:
Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change. It is seen as separate and “other”. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them. It is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and sexist. It is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism and engaged in a clash of civilizations. It is seen as a political ideology, used for political or military advantage. Criticisms made of “the West” by Muslims are rejected out of hand. Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society. Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural and normal.
We see all of these attitudes alive and well in Australia today. Many political and national organizations spend huge amounts of money perpetuating them for their own purposes. Then there are extremist groups among Muslims, terrorists whose actions, both overseas and in Australia make these assumptions seem true of all Muslims. So these assumptions appear to be true to most Australians. This fear leads to racism and redneck reactions.
We will never be free in this world, nor in this country, from our fears and phobias until we seek to know the truth that sets us free, and pray for those who are our enemies, those who despitefully use us, and those whom we do not understand. Those whose lives are dominated by any fear, including Islamophobia, are actually sick and not living in the freedom of Jesus Christ.
That is why it makes sense that in the 30 days when Muslims are seeking to be more spiritual, to practise justice, kindness, forgiveness, and to practise charity that Christians should also use this time to pray for their Muslim contacts, seeking to witness to them and bring them to the light of Jesus Christ.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.