Jews, Christians and Muslims
Berlingske 15th December 2013
Feature Article
By Dean Anders Gadegaard
When religion is made the ‘apple of discord’ in the public debate, it is false labeling description. The Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy scripts all proclaime the faithful’s responsibility to love their neighbour.
The Danish society and the Danish cultural values are based on a Christian view of humanity. But after the migration of the last decades, Denmark has to a higher degree become a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. Some voices in the public debate attempt to deny this, some even to counteract this, but the fact is, that Denmark today is inhabited by a lot of people with different backgrounds, skin-colors, opinions, values and faiths. And in a globalized world, and an EU that aims at free labour mobility, we can expect to see even more diversity in the future.
During the last 25 year’s political discourse, these differences have to a higher degree been cause to conflict and confrontation, and in some instances even persecution: ‘The foreign worker’ has been met with hate and opposition, refugees subjected to miserable conditions in an inhumane asylum-system, religious minorities have been subjected to suspicion and surveillance. In this continuous debate religion has played a not unimportant role. And faith is more often made to point of dispute rather than the opposite.
With this feature article we want to clarify, how this conflict seeking argumentation does not correspond with the Abrahamic religion’s own values, and is in direct contradiction to the message of the holy scripts. In common Judaism, Christianity and Islam preach love of one's neighbour and brotherhood, not only among its own followers, but between all humans. All three religious beliefs emphasize their followers love and care for one’s neighbour - regardless of either the neighbour is a fellow believer or a stranger. The biblical word for ‘neighbour’ is ‘the next’. My next is my closest in the village, my relative, my countryman. In third book of the Torah, chapter 19, verse 18 the command of love of one’s neighbour is emphasized for the Jews and Christians: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. That much one should appreciate one’s neighbour: One should love him/her as much, as one loves oneself. In a famous Jewish story a heathen comes to the famous rabbi Hillel and demands to learn Judaism while standing on one leg. Hillel answers: ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation’.
The Prophet Muhammad says accordingly: ‘That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind.’ (Hadith Bukhari) and The Quran 4:36 says: ‘to parents do good, and to relatives, orphans, the needy, the near neighbour, the neighbour farther away, the companion at your side, the traveller, and those whom your right hands possess’. Imam Hasan ibn Ali (d. 670) furthermore said, that a good neighbour is not the one, who refrains from doing harm to its neighbour, but the one, who endures harm from its neighbour. Exemplary neighbourhood is to be patient with possible inconveniences.
My next and neighbour are not exclusively those who live straight away next to me. It can be the neighbourhood, a work college, a companion at a tourist attraction or the fellow students in a class room. The people one associates with, are all one’s neighbours. Within Islam good neighbourhood is a sign of one’s faith. Without exemplary neighbourhood one can not acquire the qualities of the faithful. One does not distinguish between faith and ethnicity to be classified as neighbour in Islamic theology. Neither in Judaism is my next ‘only’ my neighbour. With basis in, that there only exists one God, Judaism says, that there is also only one humanity: A humanity where everyone enjoys the same justice before God. Twice in his daily service the Jew state (Psalm 145) ‘The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made’.
Third book of Torah chapter 19 verse 34 says: ‘The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt’. In chapter 24 is referred: ‘One law shall be exacted for you, convert and resident alike’. It is Jewish way of thinking to understand the duty towards the stranger as a religious command, why there is no stranger before God. In the Jewish way of thinking there is many ways to God. This means, that people, that practice another monotheistic religion, not only are equal, but also have a part in the coming world. That too is ‘neighbourhood’.
The preacher of Jesus in The New Testament also radicalizes the love of one’s neighbour, that is not to be limited to one’s closest or countrymen, but to everyone, that one comes to stand in relation to, regardless of it is intentional or not. The basic story about this is the parable of The Good Samaritan (Gospel of Luke 10, 25-37), that says, that love of one’s neighbour is specific helpfulness towards who, that needs me - regardless who they are and which group, they belong to. In the Gospel of Matthew 5, 44 Jesus even says: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’. It is not enough just to love those, one is associated with (family, friends, companions) - no, one should love even one’s enemies. Cohesion and reconciliation is a pivotal and relentless part of the Christian faith. God has reconciled itself with us regardless of our mistakes - therefore we owe to do the same to everyone, we have a dispute with. A Christian must always be prepared to be the first, who reaches the hand out for reconciliation and friendship.
The word ‘love’ is not an emotional word in biblical sense, but a word of action. ‘To love’ means ‘to do well towards’. But in other words: You should do just as good towards your neighbour, as you do towards yourself. Everything, that you seek to obtain for yourself and your family, you should in other words be prepared to share with your neighbour, yore companion. As a consequence Judaism is a religion of deed. This means, that only there where the good intention is transformed into action, real Judaism is expressed. The principle is among others found in the relation to the widow and the fatherless: One should not only pay attention to, their existence, but one should provide for them.
In fifth book of Torah chapter 24, is found numerous laws that specifically obliges Jews, among other things in relation to the poor. To leave a corner of the field was a command regarding, that there should be the possibility of, that one, who does not own land, also have the right of crop, and the provision about, that if you forget a sheaf on the field during harvest, you should not go back, for it should belong to the stranger, are in many ways unique.
This is entirely consistent with Islamic way of thought: When one of the fellow believers of Prophet Muhammad, Abdullah ibn Umar, had butchered a sheep, he asked for it to be distributed, starting with their Jewish neighbour. With that attitude good neighbourhood can change an entire local community.
The Christian’s relation to God is also reflected in his way of action - or lack of action - towards their neighbours and guests: In the Gospel of Matthew 25, 31-45 the sheep are separated from the goats depending on, whether one has given food, water and clothes to the poor, provided for the strangers and sick and visited inmates in prison. Jesus says: ‘Whatever you did - or did not - for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’.
Love and care for next and neighbour are unavoidable in all three Abrahamic religions. And it is not limited to the believer’s closest, or people of same faith or origin. It embraces all humans, the believer stand towards - close as well as remote. In the Gospel of Matthew 22, 34-40 Jesus even calls love to God and the next for the most important command of the law. When religion thus, in the public debate, is made ‘the apple of discord’, it is false labeling description: The Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy scripts all proclaim the responsibility of the believer of both loving their neighbour and caring for him or her. To argue for the opposite is to go against the word of in common The Torah, Bible and Quran, and to do it with one of the holy scripts in the hand, is direct misrepresentation.
It is our hope and aim, that Danish Jews, Christians and Muslims will take these words to heart, and be able to appreciate those values of love of one’s neighbour and good neighbourhood, that our three religions have in common. We encourage both believers and non-believers in Denmark to remember the holy scripts, think about their meaning today and make an effort for good neighbourhood.
http://www.b.dk/kronikker/joeder-kristne-og-muslimer
