A Jew, a Christian and a Muslim were talking together. "Why are we always fighting?" asked the Christian. "We have so much in common: we know the stories of Abraham, of Noah, of Moses. We all know about Jesus, though we have different views as to whether he was a teacher, a prophet, or, as we Christians believe, a saviour. We Christians long for peace. We seek the peace of God, which passes all understanding."
"And so do we," replied the Jew. "The prophets Isaiah and Micah looked forward to the day when swords would be beaten into ploughshares, and people would not learn war any more."
"Our religion," said the Muslim, "is called Islam, because salaam in Arabic means peace, and Islam means being at peace with God and with our fellow-beings. This is the peace towards which we should be working. But why in your New Testament does Jesus say 'I come not to bring peace, but a sword'?"
"The sword is not for physical warfare," answered the Christian. "It symbolizes the stark division we must make between the Christian life and the life around us. Our struggle is with the powers of evil and darkness. For physical violence, you need to read the Old Testament. See how in Deuteronomy, God commands the children of Israel to utterly destroy their enemies, and to cast out the innocent inhabitants of the Promised Land. And there's worse than that..."
"That was just a kind of parable," said the Jew. "If you read your Bible, you will know that the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Perizzites were not destroyed at all. The texts in Deuteronomy are a call to lead a life of purity and obedience to the Lord, and to avoid the animist practices of the other races living in the land. It is Islam which preaches war. Does it not say in the Qu'ran: 'Fight those who do not believe in God, even the People of the Book'?"
"Fighting," replied the Muslim, "need not be with weapons. And if you would only read the next verse of the Qu'ran, our conflict is with Jews who believe that Ezra was the son of God, and with Christians who believe there are three Gods. Should we not all resist this kind of delusion? If you look at your history books, you will see that for long periods we lived in harmony with Jews and Christians. The Qu'ran says there must be no compulsion in religion. But I admit we have been guilty of violence. Our conquest of Spain in the eighth century was not peaceful, and nor was the invasion of eastern Europe by the Turks in the 15th century."
"We are all guilty of violence," admitted the Christian. "The Crusades were the same: an attempt at political conquest using religion as a pretext. And we have all tried to achieve good results by evil means - by the Inquisition, by forced conversions."
"Yes," said the Jew, "our history in the Bible has been one of conflict and division. And over the last 60 years, we have used force too freely. Anyway, you Christians have your Protestants and your Catholics, your liberals and your fundamentalists. You Muslims have your Sunnis and your Shi'ites. We have had our Pharisees and our Sadducees, and today we have Orthodox and Progressive Jews. Alas, they do not always see eye to eye."
"We must all start a jihad," replied the Muslim. The other two stared questioningly. But the Muslim went on. "Jihad is the Arabic word for struggle. The Qu'ran mentions two kinds of jihad. One is physical, for self-defence if our worship or possessions are threatened. This is the jihad we all hear about in the news. But the more important struggle is for inner holiness, the struggle to choose what is right and avoid what is wrong. In your New Testament, Paul talks of pummelling his body to make himself fit to run a race, and the Letter to the Hebrews talks of the struggle against sin."
"Yes," said the two others. "This is the only kind of jihad that is worth struggling for. Perhaps we can carry on this struggle together. We are all made in God's image: if we listen to each other, perhaps we can learn from each other, and so come closer to our Creator."
But did they?
HD