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How the Israel-Hamas war has brought together Arab Christians and
Muslims

Bonds strained in recent years by the rise of Islamic radicals have
been cemented again.

November 3, 2023

By Daoud Kuttab

AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) — Yasmine Faraa, a Jordanian of Palestinian
heritage, was angered when an Israeli missile hit a building belonging
to St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza, killing 18 and
injuring 20.

Faraa, a Muslim, came up with the idea to hold a vigil outside the
Orthodox Christian Church, in the Jordanian capital’s Sweifieh
neighborhood, to show solidarity. The numbers that turned out for the
vigil on Sunday (Oct. 22) surprised even the Jordanian police, who had initially decided that they didn’t need to block the roads leading to
the church. The crowd was largely composed of middle- and
upper-middle-class Jordanian families, who brought their kids and held
signs denouncing the continued attack on Gaza.

After the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City — founded by Baptist missionaries in the 1880s and now run by the Anglican Episcopal Church
in Jerusalem — was struck four days later, Mohammad Al-Momani, a
former Jordanian deputy prime minister who is secretary general of the
new Mithaq Party, quickly organized a small rally again in opposition
to the war. (Israel has made claims that the hospital attack was a
misfired Palestinian rocket, but this claim has not been confirmed
either way according to major world media outlets.)

Christian and Muslim relations in the Mideast have a long history of cooperation, and the pan-Arab nationalist movement has always included Christian intellectuals, writers, poets, political leaders and
professionals of all kinds. Faraa noted that in the 1970s her mother
studied at the American University in Beirut, one of several leading
institutes of higher education in the Middle East founded by Western
Christian missionaries.

But these bonds have been strained in recent years by the rise of
Islamic radical movements, which have sometimes attempted to create
schisms within the Arab world. Radical Islamists discourage their
followers from congratulating their Arab Christian neighbors
celebrating Christmas or Easter. When Palestinian American journalist
Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli snipers in May of 2022, some
cautioned devout Muslims not to call for mercy on her soul.
Israeli police confront mourners as they carry the casket of slain Al
Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in
east Jerusalem, Friday, May 13, 2022. Abu Akleh, a
Palestinian-American reporter who covered the Mideast conflict for
more than 25 years, was shot dead Wednesday during an Israeli military
raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Israeli police confront mourners as they carry the casket of slain Al
Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in
east Jerusalem, Friday, May 13, 2022. Abu Akleh, a
Palestinian-American reporter who covered the Mideast conflict for
more than 25 years, was shot dead during an Israeli military raid in
the West Bank town of Jenin. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

But Palestinians who had watched Abu Akleh on Al Jazeera for years,
many of whom had no idea she was Christian, were outraged when
mourners trying to carry her Palestinian flag-draped coffin to the
Christian cemetery in Jerusalem’s Old City were disrupted by Israeli
police.

The Israeli action in Gaza has now further cemented the bond between
Arab Christians and Muslims. Arab Christians, meanwhile, feel
increasingly alienated from their fellow Christians in the West, not
least by the United States’ whole-hearted support of Israel from the
start of the war. A statement by 12 Palestinian Christian institutions
calling on Christian leaders to denounce the violence against
Palestinian civilians has since garnered more than 15,600 signatures.

“We deeply mourn the death and suffering of all people because it is
our firm conviction that all humans are made in God’s image. We are
also profoundly troubled when the name of God is invoked to promote
violence and religious national ideologies,” the statement read.

The statement concludes, “We refuse to give in, even when our siblings abandon us. We are steadfast in our hope, resilient in our witness,
and continue to be committed to the gospel of faith, hope, and love,
in the face of tyranny and darkness.
FILE - Palestinians inspect the damage of buildings destroyed by
Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza
City, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. Israel and Hamas have both been accused
of breaking the rules of armed conflict. Hamas killed hundreds of
civilians and abducted scores more when it attacked southern Israel on
Oct. 7. Israel has bombarded Gaza and told more hundreds of thousands
of Palestinians to leave their homes. The United Nations says it is
collecting evidence of war crimes by all sides. But holding
perpetrators to account for it is often difficult. (AP Photo/Abdul
Qader Sabbah, File)

“In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope. We believe in
God, good and just. We believe that God’s goodness will finally
triumph over the evil of hate and of death that still persist in our
land.”

(Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian Christian journalist, is a former Ferris
professor of journalism at Princeton University and a member of the
Amman Baptist Church. He is on X @daoudkuttab and on Instagram &
Threads @daoud.kuttab. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Source: https://t.co/ijoXzFOa3j
or <https://religionnews.com/2023/11/03/gaza-has-further-bonded-arab-christians-and-muslims/>




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