The disappearance of the Jewish presence across much of the Middle East region after three millennia was a traumatic historical event. The Middle East was denuded of a sig- nificant cultural and religious force, as with the loss of millions of Christians during the whole of the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first. A consequence is the inten- sifying of the region’s Muslim character, but also making “difference” an intra-Muslim, rather than an inter-religious, question. With Jews accounting for some 15 million people and Muslims some 1.6 billion, the rela- tionship between them is unlike Christian- Muslim engagement, which is global. Together the latter two religions account for well over half of the world’s population. Instead, much of the modern narrative between Judaism and Islam has been centred on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The encounter between Jews and Muslims is, of course, as old as Islam itself. Judaism should be considered the primary religious “other” for Islam, not Christianity. Islam is marked by its encounter with Judaism, with the early orientation (qibla) of prayer for Muslims being towards Jerusalem. Ritual and law, the character of a distinctive monotheistic belief, the creation of a non- Jewish/non-Christian identity of Abraham, are crafted in this context. Islam sees itself as the restoration of what


Judaism and Christianity would or should have been, had they not become corrupted


A Jewish boy eats sweets in Jerusalem's Old City, with the Dome of the Rock in the background.


Photo: Reuters/ Baz Ratner


especially with regard to their Scriptures. This doctrine has supported a concept of Islam as abrogating both Judaism and Christianity. The creation of the state of Israel in May 1948, the traumatic defeat of the Arab armies in their first war against Israel and the mass flight and expulsion of Palestinians constituted a watershed in Palestinian and Arab history, generally known as al-Nakba or “The Catastrophe”. The growing involvement of Islamic authors and movements who gave a distinctly Islamic tinge to the emerging nar- rative and the Arab defeat in the June war of 1967 brought about more changes in the regional political map – the Israeli conquest of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including


Jerusalem and the Temple Mount with the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. While scholars have noted Muslim presen- tations of Christianity by writers from the Arab Mediterranean becoming more sympa- thetic since the Second World War, the presentations of Judaism have become more hostile. Yet there are a number of Arab intel- lectuals and political activists, mainly Palestinian, who have begun to discuss publicly the Holocaust as a fact relevant to both Jewish and Arab-Palestinian history and identity, and equally a number of Israeli and Jewish groups who see the Nakba as part of the ongoing history of the Muslim-Jewish encounter. After years of tensions between Israel and


the Arab and Muslim world, influenced by conflict between Hezbollah in Lebanon and an emerging nuclear Iran, what will the changes in Egypt bring? They might just open up cultural and religious space that would allow for a different type of politics.


■Anthony O’Mahony is reader in theology and the history of Christianity at Heythrop College, University of London.


(This is the third in our series on the Middle East crisis. Turn to page 10 for the fourth.)


THE ALTAR IS EMPTY! Priests and parish leaders discuss the problem of priestless communities.


A picture book has become available which makes it easier to discuss the complicated question of the shortage of priests. Its large graphics (see sample at the left), and discussion questions lead to the realization that we will eventually overcome the shortage of priests if we begin today by community building and by a solid training of local leaders. Whether or not our altar remains empty, lies also in our own hands.


Title:


Every Community Its Own Ordained Leaders


Author: Bishop F. Lobinger Price: USD 7.95 plus postage ISBN 978-971-0511-27-3


Available either via your local bookshop, or directly from Claretian Publications


cci@claret.org 19 February 2011 | THE TABLET | 9


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40