From a brochure of the same title, produced and distributed by the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY 40202-1396.

The nature of the relationship between Christians and Muslims is significant to the whole human family. We have been in contact with one another for more than fourteen centuries. Today both together comprise nearly half the world's population.

Christian-Muslim relations have sometimes been marked by constructive living together, sometimes by rivalry or violent conflict. Globally, the western and Islamic worlds are presently becoming more interdependent economically, politically, and culturally. Old patterns are now being challenged and new opportunities are being created.

Christians in the United States have not always thought of Muslims as close neighbors, but in our time Islam is becoming the second largest religious community in our nation. This growing Muslim community is composed of both indigenous and immigrant Muslims, plus temporary residents such as students. Muslims have concerns about their identity and involvement in American society that parallel those of their Christian neighbors. The ways Christians in the U.S. relate to Muslims affect the relations between Christians and Muslims in other countries, and vice versa.

In the last half century, many countries with predominantly Muslim populations have emerged from the colonial era. As they take their place among the community of nations, they are shaping global directions in decisive ways. They struggle to achieve political order and economic growth while preserving the integrity of their Islamic way of life. In some situations, Muslims are a minority among people whose ways are unfamiliar to them. In other places, they are a majority. Even as a majority, Muslims sometimes find their way of life threatened by political antagonisms or secular indifference. All these factors and others--such as each community's relative degree of access to political power, economic resources or social influence--affect interaction between Muslims, Christians, and others.

Many parts of the Islamic world have returned to religious traditions in reaction to political, social, and economic changes and to the spread of western values that have accompanied modern science, technology, and industry. They have turned with fresh vigor to their scriptures, traditions, and law code to shape communal life. Contemporary Islam is in the midst of a deep, comprehensive revival, though there is no unanimity among Muslims about the form the revitalization will take.

As a religion that began after the time of Christ, Islam has always presented a theological challenge to Christians. A number of issues are currently matters for dialogue:

• the family and roles of women in the family and society
• the balance between community and individual rights
• choices between integration into the values of the larger society or assertion of a religiously-shaped identity
• the relations between religion, the world, and the state
• pastoral needs resulting from life in religiously plural situations, such as those occasioned by interreligious marriage
• appropriate forms of missionary activity

Muslims and Christians can make important contributions through working together in areas such as social and racial justice, defense of human rights, safeguarding religious freedom, conflict resolution, and refugee / displaced person needs.

Christians respond to these challenges with faith in the sovereignty of God over the world. The search for faithful witness must be motivated by a desire to love God, to be obedient to God's will, and to love neighbors as ourselves. Where this may lead and how it will bring new understanding and cooperation between Christians and Muslims rest in the mercy and grace of God. Both Christians and Muslims are challenged to allow God to guide them into a future free from hatred, free from fear, and directed by hopeful love. The future holds the possibility that in our common life, Christians and Muslims may faithfully respond to God and realize the peace and justice so desperately needed.

Support the search to promote understanding.

• Get to know and become friends with Muslim neighbors.
• Identify and counteract prejudice against Islam and Muslims in our society, manifested in attitudes contrary to the universality of God's love.
• Be sensitive to stereotyping.
• Consider questions about truth and revelation, religious identity, the response to secularism, social justice, human rights, mission.
• Study about Islam.

Support the search for cooperation.

• Promote relationships and dialogue with Muslims, giving attention to practical, theological, and historical dimensions.
• Identify common concerns with Muslims. Explore ways to address concerns cooperatively and to engage in joint efforts.
• Search together for world peace and social justice.
• Work with Muslims and Jews to find common ethical grounds within our three Abrahamic communities that enable solidarity for justice, peace, and the sustainability of creation.
• Recognize that Muslim's perception of the United States' role in the Muslim world often affects their response to Christians.

Support the search for faithful witness.

• Affirm continuation of the long Presbyterian history of witness in word and deed among Muslims.
• Participate in considering appropriate forms of Christian witness for our time.
• Work for full religious freedom (including the right to practice the faith of one's choice) and for equality of citizenship for all persons in their societies -- whether Muslims or Christians or others, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere.
• Monitor the political use of religion for purposes of power and oppression.
• Affirm the partnership of U.S. churches with Christian churches in predominantly Muslim areas, supporting them in their search for full freedom to witness to their faith.
• Work through ecumenical and interfaith channels and organizations whenever possible.

See General Assembly actions on which this content is based: Islamic Study 1986 and 1987, Ecumenical Statement 1993. See also Haines and Cooley, eds., Christians and Muslims Together: An Exploration by Presbyterians, 1987.

Church & Society magazine. You Shall Love Your Neighbor: Christians and Muslims in a Time of Fear. January / February 1994 issue. PDS #72630-94-601.

Haddad, Yvonne, ed. The Muslims of America. Oxford, 1991.

Haines, Byron L. and Frank L. Cooley. Christians and Muslims Together: An Exploration by Presbyterians, Geneva Press, 1987. (Out of print but probably available in Presbytery resource centers)

Jomier, Jacques. How to Understand Islam, John Bowden, transl. Crossroad, 1991.

Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Christians and Muslims in Dialogue: Facets of a Relationship. 1991. PDS#243-91-013.

Speight, Marston. God Is One: The Way of Islam. Friendship Press, 1989. Order FP#196 from publisher, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, NY 10115.

World Council of Churches. Issues in Christian Muslim Relations: Ecumenical Considerations. 1992. In Church & Society, January / February 1994. PDS#72630-94-601.

Contact Muslim book stores for Islamic resources (e.g., ISNA Book Service, P.O. Box 38, Plainfield, IN 46168).

Christians and Muslims Together: An Exploration by Presbyterians

"At the heart of Islam is the worship of God ... It is submission to the will of God ... because the believer is thankful to God for the divine grace and mercy that has made life possible ...[The Muslim's] faith and practice must be taken seriously by all who in their own way have responded to the divine call to faithfulness."

Christians and Muslims Together: An Exploration by Presbyterians

"Muslims often suspect that Christian educational, medical and philanthropical activities ... conceal the hidden objective of proselytism. But diakonia is a form of witness that has its own integrity. Therefore, Christians are constantly called to preserve that integrity, and to be seen as engaged in disinterested and loving service."