Muslim Christian Understanding

My alma mater - Georgetown University - recently announced receipt of a large grant for its Center for Christian Muslim Understanding from a Saudi Prince named Alwaleed Bin Talal. Here's a bit of the official press release:

Georgetown University has received a $20 million dollar gift from HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, an internationally renowned businessman and global investor, to support and expand its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

The Center will be renamed The HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. This endowed fund is the second largest single gift in Georgetown University history.

"I am pleased to support the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. It is vital for the monotheistic religions to reach a common ground of understanding and to gain knowledge about what unites our civilizations," said Prince Alwaleed. "We are determined to build a bridge between Islam and Christianity for tolerance that transcends cultural and geographical boundaries."

This donation has already drawn criticism from the right. Prince Alwaleed is best known for his rejected gift to New York City in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Former Mayor Giuliani sent back the Prince's check for $10 million after the Prince commented that the United States

"should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause. While the U.N. passed clear resolutions numbered 242 and 338 calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip decades ago, our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek."

Georgetown describes the mission of the Prince Alwaleed Center as follows:

The Center plays a pivotal role in working to erase stereotypes and fears that lead to predictions of Islam as the next global threat or of a clash of civilizations between the Muslim world and the West.

I am not qualified to assess how competently the Center performs its task. But it does seem to me that at the center of "understanding" between Christians and Muslims is mutual respect for the right to practice one's faith. While this right is not universally honored in the United States and Europe, there is little official repression of the right of Muslims to practice their faith. For example, the U.S. government does not routinely close mosques or sanction Muslims for their religious expression.

What is the situation in the homeland of Prince Alawalad Bin Talal? According to the U.S. Department of State:

The [Saudi] Government does not provide legal protection for freedom of religion, and such protection does not exist in practice. The public practice of non-Muslim religions is prohibited. The Government recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship in private; however, it does not always respect this right in practice and does not define this right in law.

The Government prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation, and sometimes torture for engaging in religious activity that attracts official attention. The Government continues to state publicly that its policy is to allow non-Muslim foreigners to worship privately. However, the Government does not provide explicit guidelines--such as the number of persons permitted to attend private services and acceptable locations--for determining what constitutes private worship, thereby leaving the distinction between public and private worship unclear. This lack of clarity and instances of inconsistent enforcement led many non-Muslims to worship in fear of harassment and in such a way as to avoid discovery by police or Mutawwa'in. The Government often deported those detained for visible non-Muslim worship, sometimes after lengthy periods of arrest during investigation. In some cases, those convicted were also sentenced to receive lashes prior to deportation. In contrast to previous years, there was a decrease in both long-term detentions and deportations of non-Muslims for religious reasons; however, there was a marked increase in harassment by Mutawwa'in and in overall arrests and short-term detentions of non-Muslims. Some former detainees reported occasional government harassment and surveillance following their release.

In other words, a Christian who practices her faith in Saudi Arabia risks arrest, deportation and lashing.

The policies of the Saudi government are not unique in this regard. In Iran, where Islam is the official religion, the government "restricts the freedom of religion," according to the U.S. Department of State. The State Department's Report on International Religious Freedom notes that:

The [Iranian] Government vigilantly enforces its prohibition on proselytizing activities by evangelical Christians by closing their churches and arresting Christian converts. Members of evangelical congregations have been required to carry membership cards, photocopies of which must be provided to the authorities. Worshippers are subject to identity checks by authorities posted outside congregation centers. The Government has restricted meetings for evangelical services to Sundays, and church officials have been ordered to inform the Ministry of Information and Islamic Guidance before admitting new members to their congregations.

Conversion of a Muslim to a non-Muslim religion is considered apostasy under the law and is punishable by the death penalty, although it is unclear whether this punishment has been enforced in recent years. Similarly, non-Muslims may not proselytize Muslims without putting their own lives at risk. Evangelical church leaders are subject to pressure from authorities to sign pledges that they will not evangelize Muslims or allow Muslims to attend church services.
Georgetown is a Catholic university. According to its official website:

Georgetown University began with the vision of John Carroll, an American-born, European-educated Jesuit priest who returned to the United States in 1773 with the goal of securing the future of American Catholicism through education -- in particular, through the establishment of a preeminent Catholic place of higher learning.

The vision of John Carroll continues to be realized today in a distinctive educational institution -- a national University rooted in the Catholic faith and Jesuit tradition, committed to spiritual inquiry, engaged in the public sphere, and invigorated by religious and cultural pluralism.

Georgetown University is a product of our country's long tradition of religious tolerance. American Catholics can attend Mass each Sunday without any fear of official sanction. Our co-religionists in Saudi Arabia and Iran can not do the same. So this is my point of view. The "dialogue" about Christian-Muslim understanding should begin with an unequivocal demand by American Catholics that our co-religionists - our brothers and sisters in faith - be given the same freedom to worship that we enjoy. And by the way, the same freedom of worship that Muslims enjoy in this country. Unceasing advocacy for respect of religious freedom would be the best use for Prince Alwaleed's $20 million.