Welcome
back to the new miniseries where I answer your questions about life in the
Palestinian Territories. If you missed the first post about grocery shopping,
you can read it here. Today we’re looking at the following topic
submitted by a reader:
How Muslim
and Christian culture interact today.
First, it
will be helpful to establish some context. Many Americans (including my younger
self) have a very limited understanding of the Middle East generally and Muslim
culture specifically, based on a set of stereotypes that we have been
introduced to. We tend to hear about the conservative extreme of Islamic
societies such as Saudi Arabia or Iran and apply that perception across the
board, assuming that every Muslim country is the same. Imagine someone from outside
America assuming that New York, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and
Oregon all have the same culture just because they’re all part of America. We
would laugh, right? In some ways they couldn’t be more different. And yet we do
the same thing with countries in the Middle East.
What we
often don’t realize is that, generally speaking, there are three types of
“Muslim countries” (not all of which are in the Middle East, by the way),
meaning Islam is the majority religion. In the first group, which includes
places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan, you have zero separation
between religion and government. Islam is the state religion, and other
religions are forbidden and/or persecuted. In the second group, there is no
official separation between religion and government (i.e., Islam is the
official state religion), but other religions are freely practiced by
minorities. In the last group, there is complete separation between religion
and government, the majority of the population just happen to practice Islam.
Palestine
falls in the second category. The majority of the population is Muslim, and
Islam is the state religion, but Christians enjoy freedom of worship, and there
are a growing number of people who do not practice any religion. When it comes
to Christianity, many different denominations and/or traditions are represented
here. In our city alone there are Baptist/Evangelical (at least 3 different churches),
Lutheran, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic (Melkite),
and Coptic.
The fact
that there are Christians in the actual birthplace of Christianity shouldn’t be
shocking, but to many Americans it is. I remember the first time I realized
there were Palestinian Christians. (You can read more about that in another post.) That was the first step in a journey of discovery I continue
to traverse today as I learn more and more about our brothers and sisters in
Christ in this region. But Christianity in Palestine does not merely exist; in
some areas it is highly visible and even more a part of public life than it is
in the States.
Ramallah
and Bethlehem, two cities in the West Bank portion of the Palestinian
Territories (the other portion being Gaza), are considered “Christian cities.”
Among other things, this means that by local law the mayor of each city must be
Christian. Of course, that could just mean “Christian-in-name-only” (I’ll use
the acronym CINO for short) and not an actual follower of Jesus, but it means
that they cannot be Muslim, atheist, etc. Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian
government in the West Bank, was founded by a Christian family in the 1500s.
Today, there are Christmas, Palm Sunday, and Easter parades, Christmas
concerts, and a Christmas market. The municipal government sets up giant
Christmas trees throughout the city, hosts a Christmas tree lighting for the
largest one, and displays a nearly life-size nativity scene on the grounds of
City Hall. Even on the national level, despite Islam being the state religion,
Christmas and Easter are official holidays.
Christianity
also shows up in education. In several cities, there are multiple private
Christian schools, attended by both Christians and Muslims. Because religion is
a mandatory subject, these schools teach Islam classes for the Muslim students
but are able to offer Christianity classes for the Christian students. When
taking the national high school exit exam, students will be tested on either
Islam or Christianity depending on their religion. Which brings me to discuss
how religion and identity are closely tied together here.
When people
are born, their religion is recorded with the government. Until about a decade
ago, it was also displayed on their IDs. There is very much a sense of being
born into a religion here, and that association lives with you regardless of
whether or not you believe and/or practice that religion. So while practically
everyone will identify as either “Christian” or “Muslim,” the number of people
who actually live according to either faith is smaller. “Christians” are a
small minority in Palestine, but because of the large amount of CINOs, true
Christians, i.e., people who have actually trusted Christ as their Savior, are
an even smaller minority.
And now
that the contextual background has been painted, we can look at how Christians
and Muslims interact with each other in daily life here. Many Christians in
America, never having met a Muslim and forming their understanding based solely
on what they hear and see on the news, have the impression that all Muslims
hate Christians and want to attack them, burn churches, etc. What we often fail
to realize is that just as with any other religion, there is a spectrum on
which people fall, and there is much disagreement within Islam over how the
faith should be lived out. While there likely are Muslims in Palestine who hate
Christians, there are others who simply disagree with Christianity and have no
problem being friends—even close friends—with Christians.
Muslims and
Christians live and work alongside each other just as people of different
faiths do in the States. Using our own experience as an example, we have many
close friends who are Muslim; we have hosted them in our home and visited them
in theirs. We have attended Muslim weddings and funerals, and Muslims have
attended Christian ones alongside us, each ceremony being conducted according
to the beliefs and practices of the given religion.
In the
workplace, Muslims and Christians in the public sector and banks, are all given
days off for both Islamic and Christian holidays. In the private sector, some
companies give Muslims the Islamic holidays off and Christians the Christian
holidays off, while others give everyone the Islamic holidays off and give the
Christian holidays only to Christians.
During
holidays like Ramadan where Muslims are to fast from both food and drink
(including water) from sunrise to sunset, Christians, though not required by
law to fast, will often abstain from eating or drinking in public out of
consideration for their neighbors. Muslim-owned restaurants will also be closed
during fasting hours, while Christian-owned ones will remain open.
I hope this
has given you a glimpse into the cultural dynamics that exist between Muslims
and Christians here in the West Bank. Stay tuned for the next post where we’ll
look at a different aspect of life in Palestine.
Do you
have a question or topic you’d like me to discuss in this series? Let me know in
the comments!
PC: Eric Eanes. Used with permission.
.JPG)