When Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain in the 15th Century, the Ottoman sultan who welcomed them said Ferdinand had 'impoverished his own country and enriched mine'
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center at Georgetown University, Washington DC, is dedicated to promotion of Christian-Muslim understanding, and is named after Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who supported it with a generous donation nearly a decade ago. Last April, the Center invited Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, the Pakistan-born British Anglican religious leader, to give a talk on the future of Christian-Muslim relations. Until the late eighties, he used to be the Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan. Since his relocation to England, he has received many honors, including membership of the House of Lords. He currently serves as the director of the Oxford University Center for Training and Research.
At the end of his talk, Bishop Nazir-Ali, who retains his Pakistani citizenship, was asked why he left Pakistan. He responded that he would have liked to stay there, but was driven out of the country in the late eighties because of a pervasive environment of intolerance against the Christian minority that peaked during the Zia regime. Despite repeated attempts, he ruefully elaborated, he could not secure permission to build a church to fulfill the needs of his community. The authorities advised him to build a school instead of a church, for which permission would be no problem. His comments seemed outlandish delivered in an academic setting in the backdrop of Washington DC, an area where mosques are a familiar sight and where new places of Muslim worship are springing up with increasing frequency.
[quote]He could not secure permission to build a church [/quote]
The denial of equal rights to minorities in Pakistan is not limited to Christians. The Ahmadiyya community has been a particular target of the extremists. Two distinguished members of this community rendered outstanding service to the country. Professor Abdus Salam (1926-1996) remains the only Nobel laureate Pakistan ever produced. Salam, a deeply religious man, worked hard to reignite an interest in science in Muslims. Similarly, Sir Zafarullah Khan (1893-1985) served Pakistan as its first foreign minister represented the country at the UN and later as a judge at the International Court of Justice at Haig. Today, neither would be considered Muslim nor would be welcome in Pakistan. The Shia community has also suffered greatly at the hands of violent extremists; their contributions to Pakistan, both before and after its creations, are well-known. Even the founder of the country, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was born in a Shia family.
Recently, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, in common with a number of other embassies, opened its door to the public for a day to showcase Pakistani culture, customs, and historic sites of interest. Prominent among the pictures on display were those depicting the unique and colorful lifestyle of the Kalash people living in the Chitral district in the North. Frequently threatened by the Pakistani Taliban, urging them to convert to Islam, they are an endangered group. Their number has dwindled to less than five thousand. If they disappear, an ancient culture and unique civilization dating back centuries will be lost to the world for ever.
[quote]The population of Kalash people has dwindled to less than five thousand[/quote]
In Pakistan, the record of contributions made by non-Muslims –Christians, Parsis and Hindus – in the pre-partition days to the civic life is extensive and well documented. The DJ College, NED University, St Patrick’s College, Mama Parsi School, St Joseph’s college for women in Karachi and Christian Foreman College, and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital at Lahore are just a few examples.
Lately, there has been an appreciation that ethnic and religious diversity is a valuable asset that enriches the national talent pool in many forms. In the United States, barriers of discrimination have gradually been lifting during the past five decades, and attempts to create a pluralistic, syncretistic society have made much headway. Many gifted scientists and scholars who have achieved renown for major discoveries have been drawn from a spectrum of religious and ethnic groups, Jews, Chinese, Indians, Hispanic and Pakistanis. In the past century, 37 percent of all Nobel-prize recipients in America were Jewish Americans, even though their share of population is only 2 percent. Many of them were or descended from, immigrants from Europe. There is a move in the US Congress that students coming from developing countries seeking advance training in hard sciences, physics, mathematics, engineering, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, should be given the option to settle in this country.
[quote]Many scholars in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad were Christians, Jews and Hindus[/quote]
Today, Islam has become unfairly identified with the atrocities and carnage perpetrated by militant organizations such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and Taliban in Pakistan. Nevertheless, Islamic history is replete with examples of tolerance and generosity towards minorities. When Islamic power in Cordoba, Andalusia, was at its peak under Abdur Rehman III (891-961), Jews and Christians served as states emissaries and occupied powerful positions. A beautiful account of the interfaith harmony during that glorious period is provided by Maria Menocal, professor at Yale University, in her best-selling book; The Ornament of the World (Little, Brown &Co). In 949, Caliph Abdur Rehman III sent his trusted representative and advisor, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, an observant Jew, as head of a delegation, to conclude an important treaty with Byzantine emperor Constantine VII at Constantinople. According to cotemporary chronicles, Shaprut also brought back an invaluable gift, a manuscript of a Greek encyclopedia of medicine and botany compiled by the Greek physician of antiquity, Dioscorides, a much-coveted treasure that enriched the libraries of Cordoba. Similarly, Christian Bishop Rabi ibn Zayd served as a Caliph’s high-powered diplomat in 955, accredited to the court of Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor.
A complex surgical method at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad
In the late 15th century, when Jews and Muslims were expelled by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, they were warmly welcomed by the Ottoman Sultan, Beyezid II, who sent out his navy ships to bring them to Turkey. He exclaimed in bewilderment, “They venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler, who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine.”
In the ninth century, the 7th Abbasid Caliph, Jafar Abdullah al-Ma’mun (786-833), one of the most learned and gifted rulers of the Middle Ages, established an institutes of advanced learning, House of Wisdom, in Baghdad. It became the center of superior intellectual and scholarly pursuits where learned men from around the world were drawn to undertake research and exchange ideas. Many of these scholars were Christians, Jews and Hindus, though their language of communication was Arabic. The west is still grateful for their contributions towards preserving Greek knowledge, adding to it and transmitting it to Europeans.
Inclusive, syncretic societies are likely to be strong and peaceful. Writing on the Op Ed page of the New York Times (May, 07), Marwan Muasher, the former foreign minister of Jordan, denounced the religious sectarianism tearing apart the Arab world today. “For the last century”, he lamented, “leaders have used religious and ethnic differences to create rifts and exploits them to extend their reign. The result has been that the (Arab) people today identify principally as Shia or Sunni or something else; a Kurd in Iraq thinks of himself first as a Kurd, not an Iraqi.”
The analysis could apply to Pakistan equally well.
