What have you heard about Christians and Muslims in Africa?

‘The first Muslims came to Africa at the time of the Prophet Muhammad’

‘Muslim groups in Africa use the Internet to keep in touch with Muslim organisations around the world’

‘There have been Islamic terrorist attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania’

‘Almost 20 per cent of the world’s Muslims live in sub-Saharan Africa’

We hear so many different things about Christians and Muslims in Africa that it can be hard to gain an understanding of the situation and how we might pray into it. An important part of the picture for Crosslinks is working with PROCMURA (Project for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa). This name might be new to you, but it is one key strand of Crosslinks’ commitment to mission in Africa.

PROCMURA works among the churches in sub-Saharan Africa to enable mission among Muslim communities. It sees mission as witness to the Gospel and peaceful co-existence with Muslims. These two aims are linked because to share God’s Word, Christians need to live according to kingdom values: making peace and hungering after justice. As Christians share the Gospel, its message must not be obscured by the quality of life of the Christian community. This means living the love of God as well as speaking of it.

Some Christians are living in difficult situations such as those in the states of Northern Nigeria that have established, or are seeking to establish, the rule of Islamic law (Shari’ah). Some live amongst the violence and oppression in Sudan, or are confronted by the huge health, social and spiritual pressures arising from the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Yet even in these situations PROCMURA enables Christians to seek a balance which does not tolerate aggression (under the guise of proclaiming the Gospel), nor compromise justice for the sake of peace.

National ecumenical church groups appoint Area Advisors for PROCMURA who work hard on a local level to promote peaceful meetings between Christians and Muslims. They are also busy within the Christian community building up the body of believers. Part of this is enabling Christians to develop an understanding of Islam. It is important to dispel myths and unhelpful stereotypes so that Christians can work effectively with their Muslims neighbours. This means locally based education, training for leadership, and specific concern for learning about mission in the sub-Saharan context. 

Crosslinks supports mission partner John Chesworth at St Paul’s United Theological College in Limuru, Kenya. John traces his call to work with other faiths back to his first placement in Africa in 1978, where he taught at an Anglican primary school in Tanzania, which included pupils from Muslim, Hindu and Sikh families. In 2000, John moved to Kenya and was appointed as a lecturer at St Paul’s Theological College, with a special remit to develop teaching on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. He teaches undergraduates and ordinands, and is developing a Post Graduate programme with PROCMURA.

John’s approach is to present Islam in a way that Christians can understand, to demystify it and so reduce the fear factor. It means presenting the importance of Christian-Muslim dialogue and the development of mutual understanding. This approach is not always immediately understood: some students feel it contradicts the Christian call to evangelism. However, this approach does not exclude evangelism and John is passionately committed to helping Muslims come to know Christ. As the students begin to study with John, they come to appreciate the need for and effectiveness of such a balanced approach.

In order that their studies are useful to them in the situations where they live and minister, the courses draw from students what they themselves have already observed and experienced. St. Paul’s has students from throughout East Africa, including ten students from the Sudan. By acknowledging the conflict situation there and allowing the Sudanese to share some of the issues, students learn the value of understanding Islam in its context.

Through all this work the Bible verses that sustain John is the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel. He describes it as the passage he hangs on to as he teaches Islam; it gives him his raison d’etre for telling others. Moreover, it gives him the mandate as a teacher to teach others how to go and tell.

Muslim relationships in the UK - the work of Faith to Faith

Crosslinks magazine August 2003 index