Friends,
(written two weeks ago) this is what I like about the Gambia-L, that I can
learn more. Even this is not precisely about the Gambia, I think it can
serve as an example on how itīs possible in a dominant islamic country as
The Gambia to live in peace with one another even some of the neighbours are
belonging to another religion.
Due to the very heated debate in Denmark on the refugee-immigrant issues
combined with (mis-)understandings (or misinterpreting and prejudices) of
Islam (which is now the second largest religion in Denmark), itīs always
interesting to learn from one another. And to respect one another is needed.
Many conflicts and wars are caused by religious fanaticism. My comment will
not be detailed and balanced, but briefly. Nor am I a scolar or strong
bible-reader, so I know there is a risk, that some of it will be
misunderstood, also because of my limited english. But please give me
credit. I donīt want to offend any person, nor religion.
I have said it before on the Gambia-l, that Judaism, Christianity and Islam
have as monotheist religions originated from the same geographic region very
much in common. But when it comes to certain things they are at the same
time incommensurable.
There are certain living rules and regulations which our religious leaders
advice us originate directly from Gods words to us, delivered to us through
holy people, and later on written in books, but in a local language, which
non of us master today. (That is why we have so many "interpretations")
These living rules is "eternal" and can not be changed. No matter what book
belongs to which religion, we all stick to such, muslims to the Quran, and
christians and jews to the bible.
Then again there are other living rules which is not God-given, but is said
to be the way we should try and live our lives, if we should strive to live
up to a certain standard. Those rules can over time be changed because the
society change.
Thatīs how Iīm brought up and taught in the Catholic Church.
When I read the different "advises/living rules" some of you has presented
on the gambia-L , I want to comment and maybe become wiser. My base is my
own upbringing and my church` rules and regulation.
Participating in Holidays of The Disbelievers.
Christmas is in Christianity the time when Jesus was born, and as you all
know we (the christians) believe that Jesus is the son of God send to us.
And this is the way he (though he is God) came as a human being to live
amongst us.
Christmas trees, the feasts with gifts, the nice food and all that has
nothing to do with celebrating what Christmas is about. All that is human
made. And more and more commercialised. Here in Mid- and North Europe the
christmas feast is combined with an ancient feast - the mid winter - feast,
which we celebrated long before we became christians.This time of the year
when we had the shortest day, is the dark period, but from 22nd december the
days grow longer. Our ancestors held a very big feast with lots of food to
celebrate that now the dark times turned brighter. When our people took the
christian believe it was strategic for the new religion to combine the
traditional feast with a feast for the birth of Jesus.
Christmas tree is invented in Germany some 125 years ago among the
bourgeois, and can be said to be a very good commercial idea. Father
Christmas is here in the North Europe also a figure from our ancient folk
history a combination of the superstitious idea of small trolls who lived in
every home/farm and the Eastern European Sct. Nikolaus - figure, a holy man
in the eastern catholic church.
Like our ancestors we also feel itīs nice to have a religious feast combined
with a feast in the family. And as it has been tradition thousands of years
we also celebrate big festivals by giving small gifts to each another. That
is what we are doing around christmas, but this must not be seen as related
to the believe and the rites.
I think (hope) that all of you, no matter what religion you belong to, are
allowed to participate, when your christian friends do all this. But when it
comes to the rites, itīs different. What is maybe more critical is to join
us, when we go to church and celebrate, because what we do christmas night
in the church is repeating, what we believe in - Jesus, the son of God was
born. The Jews and Muslims donīt believe that, so you will never come to
church and say prayers together with us on that mystery. You are welcome, as
I think you would also invite me to join you celebrating or taking prayers.
The other very big holiday in the christian church is easter. We fasten 40
days ahead of easter, and in the easter week we have some of the very very
serious holidays. Those days are important for us, because that is what it
is all about. God let his son Jesus be the sacrifice for us as humans to
forgive us all the our sins. And Jesus rose from the dead and returned to
God. (I will not go into details) Again I can understand if you as muslims
can not participate in the ceremonies, the rites, our prayers those days,
because you donīt believe in this, what is central for us christians.
But like at Christmas we have nice feasts in our homes after Easterday-mass
and I think that you are allowed (by your rules?) to participate in such a
feast because that is a family-reunion. Even itīs caused by a religious
holiday participating in the family feast is not the same as saying that you
also believe in the religious things that lies behind. Again there has been
a combination to a old tradition which has nothing to do with the rites or
the believes. We give eastern-eggs, as small gifts.
In our religion baptism and marriage is also sacred rites. If you are not
allowed to join us in the rites, you should not come with us / your family/
friends in the church, but only join the party held in the home afterwards.
That should be the logic consequences of such a rule in islam.
About taken prayers, we are brought up to take them daily, just like you
muslims. The Church advise us to do it at least morning and evening, because
it is easy to combine with daily life, get used to it as a daily routine.
But IF possible you can make them over the day, and 5 times is advisable
(the priests f.in. has to take 5 times a day prayers. Just like you).
Like in Judaism and Islam we are also recommended to join together, go to
the church at least one day a week, celebrate, contemplate, listen to the
priest, what he can advise us. (friday - islam, saturday - judaism, sunday
- christianity)
If we donīt come to church once a week, or when we celebrate the big
religious holidays and donīt keep prayers, fasten, we will have to ask for
forgiveness, that we can not live up to the standard, the rules/regulations.
Fasten and abstinence.
Is not long time till we in the catholic church will have to fasten 40 days,
because the fasten is connected to Easter and has to end easter day. And our
fasten is like in Islam, the time when you should cut down on not only food,
but consumption, feasts, entertainment, ect.. Itīs time to think and
contemplate on your life, how you will try and live orderly, strive to
become a better human being, better christian, give to people who suffers,
etc. I will not go into details. We are recommended that instead of eating 2
meals, you cut to 1, and instead of taking 1 steak, you only take half,
instead of a softdrink take a glass of water, etc. etc. People who are
living under conditions, where they can not even afford one daily meal, nor
water, etc., they will certainly not have fasten rules. Itīs only people who
has food and can cut. Cancel theater, cinema, turn out TV, donīt listen to
music the whole day. Take a break and concentrate on prayers and
contemplation. But our rules are adopted to the situation of today.
Every week has an abstinence-day. The church recommend friday. So once a
week you do like it was fasten. In my family we ate only twice on friday
and the supper was just "ordinary" food. Because fish some years back was
the cheapest and the "poor mans food", and meat was not to eat every day a
sort of luxury, the church recommended fish on fridays. But today when fish
in our part of the world is a very expensive food, you should not take fish
for fridays fasten. Instead you maybe take porridge or just a vegetable
soup. So you see that these rules has to be changed or adopted to the
situation in your society, your family, the change of time.
Then there are special days over a year where you should try and fasten
totally.
But many of the things mentioned above are things the church can decide to
change.
I saw one of you put up a very teaching example. I think you said that if a
journey is more than 40 miles you as a muslim if necessary can break your
fasten. And then reminded you that the rule was put up in a society where
you travelled by foot or by camel/horse under heavy conditions. So if that
rule should have the same meaning for people today living here in our modern
western society, your scholars should try and interpret the conditions for
breaking fasten to the very same conditions. Itīs not the distance that is
essential. In a modern society 40 miles is passed within no time, and very
often under very nice conditions. Itīs the condition we have to concentrate
on. It should be adopted as a rule like: if you travel under very heavy
conditions from sunrise to sunset you are allowed to break your fasten.
What I mean is, that the rules and regulations we all face in our different
religions must reflect what they were meant to be when they were given first
time. That is why we have to try and understand what is the meaning with a
specific rule, what is the background for it, and how can we in todays
society reach to the same purpose for the rule.
My catholic church from time to time change the man-created living rules and
regulations. F. in. as I once told here on the Gambia-l, when the Christian
church started it was allowed to have more than one wife. Because that was
the social/legal environment those days in the Middle East and Turkey-area.
It was first after 100 years that we got the family rules based on monogamy,
when the christianity reached the central roman empire and should adopt to
those legal family rules.
Let me say that Iīm not very pleased to see that Islam has a rule that
"forbids Muslims to sell Christians anything they may use in their holidays
of meat, blood, or clothing, nor should he loan him an animal to ride on,
nor help him with anything concerning his festival because all of that would
be a way of dignifying their idolatry and helping them in their Kufr."
I feel offended that from a human point a good muslim should do all he could
not to help me as a Christian to reach my Church or get the things I will be
in need of to celebrate.
And itīs a surprise for me to see that muslims should not great a christian
first, and at the same time when a christian is dead a muslim can only give
condolences, but he must not pray for the christians soul to reach God and
get to rest in peace with God.
I feel that such rules can lead to bad feelings amongst us.
Iīm glad that my church donīt have such rules. When I enter a Gambian
transport or compound I great people with "Salaam aleikum", instead of just
a "hello". I like this greeting because it was common in christian societies
before. And if a muslim I know of pass away, I say prayers for him/her that
God will forgive him and give him peace.
And if we should come together and pray for the people who died from the
incident of september 11 th, or the afghan people, I feel that if we stood
there together a christian, a muslim and a jew we should be able to join in
prayers.
When I 50 years ago in sunday-school should learn the first rules and
regulations, our teachers ( some nuns) also told us many of that kind of
discriminating living rules. As a good catholic, they told me, I could not
join my comrads in their christian rites, or go to their church, "because
they were not true believers". And the same was said about the jews. Those
days we did not know of any muslims. Today we know better. But it was easy
to indoctrinate small kids. And this is the first step on a long scale. We
start early to learn not to tolerate those who are not the same, not believe
the same, not the same religion ....etc
In the name of God we christians has fought and took our so called
pilgrimage to the "holy land" to defend it against the "misbelievers". And
it was the same when the Turks in the name of Allah took half of Europe. And
we have not always just with the word tried to get people to convert to the
christian church. My church has in itīs 2000 years of history in the name of
God tortured, killed and oppressed, but today we know better, I hope.
When I grew up in the danish society as a member of a minority church, I
daily dealt with insults and prejudices from christian classmates, their
parents. (I was the one and only catholic in primary school, in secondary,
and first in highschool I met two students who were also belonging to our
church). My comrades could not understand that I had to take my prayers, go
to church on sundays. And they said very nasty things about what we believed
in, and many of our living rules. And in our history books I met a lots of
prejudices against the catholic church. As a child and youngster I could not
understand where all that "hatred" came from. But maybe my classmates have
got the same indoctrinated education as I had. So we were brought up not to
try and live peacefully and in respect with one another ?
Later in highschool, you also find out what it means to have different
"living-rules" ordered from your religious leaders. A secularised society
here in Scandinavia has other norms that a secularised society in f.in.
Spain. When many students in a young age start sexual relationship, youth in
my church can not and will get moral problems if they do so. I felt that
this moral rules was not respected by your comrads. We who practised
abstinence were looked on as "outsiders", as we belonged to a "strange
sect". As our church forbid sex before and outside marriage, it also forbid
such things as condoms. And abortion because we believe that there is a life
of a human being as soon the first cell is created and start the process.
We have from time to time "problems" with science, and we have the church to
guide us. What can we allowed f.in in gene technology or gene manipulation.
But because society, knowledge, science and many things are changing the
church has to consider those rules and regulations from time to time.
But when it comes to the most sacred in my christian catholic believes me
and my christian (Lutheran church) can not join together. Because of the
critics presented by Martin Luther my christian brothers have split from my
church on principle matters. But that should not mean that we could not live
together in mutual respect. In Denmark the Catholic church was forbidden
from 1535 until aprox. 150 years ago, when we were once again allowed to
practise our believes due to a new constitution. But the official church is
the christian-evangelic-Lutheran church which is supported by the state,
based in the constitution saying that the danish king/queen has to belong to
that faith/church.
Let me finish by saying that I do hope that we, no matter what religion we
belong to, can live in respect, and accept that we are all some kind of
believers. You as a muslim is not responsible for me, when I face God on
judgements day, as Iīm not responsible for you. But we know from our
respective religion what is expected from us in our lives.
I should like to see many mosques inside. I tried only once in The Gambia.
On one of my first tours to the Gambia in 1979 I one day wanted to enter a
mosques, but before I passed the entrance there were people who forced me
away, because "I was not a muslim" they told me. Since that day I have never
tried to enter. Even I contribute with money to build a small mosque in a a
village, I never enter that building. Because I will not cause problems. I
respect the people and if they for some reason, which I donīt know of, can
not accept me as a guest in their mosque, then I just keep out. But that
will not keep me from celebrating all the holidays of my muslim friends, and
I should gladly join them in their prayers.
I watch TV from MEKKA, Medina and Jerusalem or where ever, trying to learn
just a bit of the Muslim traditional ceremonies, traditions and rites. As
some of you maybe has been watching the popes christmas mass from Rome just
to see what is it all about. If you ignore, say itīs not allowed to watch
that, then we can not reduce the ignorance. The more we all know about the
different religions, how they have to be practised, the living rules etc.
the easier it should be for us to live as neighbours and have respect.
We must be open hearted. And not try and stamp each of us as
"non-believers", who we are going to fight against.
A long comment from Asbjørn Nordam
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