At a time when terrorist groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda or the Taliban all rely on Islam as their driving force, no one can deny it:religion is not only a source of comfort or reconciliation, but also a source of conflict.
Incidentally, this conflict is certainly not limited to Islam. In past centuries, for example, the Catholic Inquisition also knew how to try people who, in their opinion, should be considered heretical. It is therefore safe to say that within a group of people who - purely objectively and genetically speaking - should be labeled as homogeneous, religion, in addition to language and ethnicity, creates a high degree of diversity and also tension.
Abraham and Judaism
When the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, a great revolt ensued, possibly killing as many as half a million Jews. In that devastated people lies the basis of the current Jewish faith. For Judaism, their religion literally started with Abraham, not with Adam and Eve. Abraham is the ancestor of Israel and was the first to be “called” by God. According to tradition, the people of Israel descend from one of the sons of Abraham:Isaac. According to the Jews, Abraham was the first to be 'called' by God.
Seen in this way, it is all the more remarkable that the three great monotheistic world religions all rely on one and the same source. Both Christianity, Islam and the Jewish faith claim that Abraham is their patriarch. “The common patriarch is of course an interesting fact,” says the Hoofddorp theologian and pastor Coen Wessel. “This also offers starting points for those who want to understand the current tensions in society, and perhaps even help them reduce them.”
Brother quarrels
According to Wessel, conflicts between religions can essentially be traced back to fraternal strife. “The special thing is that the first stories from the Bible also always deal with conflicts between brothers. With the first brothers, Cain and Abel, the eldest kills the younger. Ishmael and Isaac were quarreling sons of Abraham. Two of Abraham's grandsons, Jacob and Esau, got into a heated argument when Jacob robbed his older brother of his father's blessing. The children of Jacob, in turn, are also furious when Joseph is thrown into a well by his brothers.”
“With a little bit of good will you can therefore call the conflicts between Judaism, Christianity and Islam a fratricidal quarrel. The religions have a lot in common. All three are about forgiveness, justice, judgment, prayer, pilgrimage. They have joint historical sources. But there are also hard conflicts between religions, with the Shoah, the destruction of the Jews in the Second World War, being the low point.”
Abraham and the Christians
In the Christian era, the patriarch Abraham lived in the year 1500 BC. Strictly speaking, Christianity originated as a separate movement within Judaism, initiated by Jesus himself. But after it first became a sort of "Christian Church" within Israel, people from outside Israel soon joined Christianity. So you can safely say that Jesus was a kind of divisive object, which ensured that a separate Jewish and a Christian church came into being. Besides being a peacemaker, Jesus was also a divisive issue between the Jews and the Christians.
“In recent decades, the Jewish and Christian faiths have come closer together again,” says Wessel. “Although the English rabbi Sacks now observes that the aversion to the Jewish faith has given way to aversion to the state of Israel. But between the two religions there has clearly been rapprochement and reconciliation.”
“Yet there are still the necessary anti-Jewish texts in the basic writings of the Christians”, Wessel knows. “So that reconciliation is something that religions must continue to work on. Before you know it, another group is up and running with certain lyrics to stir up anti-Jewish sentiments.”
“A comparable reconciliation is in principle also possible between Islam and Judaism or Christianity”, Wessel assumes.
“But you have to keep making an effort for that too, because the Koran also contains enough passages with which you can feed anti-Jewish sentiments, for example. You can deal with such a story about Mohammed exterminating a Jewish tribe in very different ways. You can read it triumphantly in the mosque, you can also skip the text, or say you are ashamed of it or you can place such a story in the time frame. ‘That is something that happened then, but which we now turn away from.’ So the convergence between the monotheistic religions is perhaps logical, but certainly not obvious.”
Following the line of the late John Lennon, and completely discarding religion as a source of conflict between groups of people, the theologian Wessel – of course – goes too far. “'Imagine there's no religion' you mean? Certainly, religion is also a source of misery. At the same time, for many people religion is also the source of inspiration and reconciliation, so for me abolishing religions, as far as you could enforce it, is not an option. And also look at the non-religious societies, such as in the communist countries. Is it so much better there? Conversely, I certainly do not agree with the Pope, who states that all religions basically strive for peace. It is a nice thought, but in practice religions are unfortunately far too complex for that.”
Abraham and Islam
Abraham stands for Muslims about the same level as Mohammed. He is also called the first Muslim. Even though there is no discussion about whether the Abraham of the Muslims is the same as that of the Christians and the Jews, within Islam completely different stories about Abraham play a leading role, especially about the older half-brother of Isaac. , Ishmael who was banished by Abraham along with his mother. According to Islam, Abraham and his son Ishmael built the Kaaba, the central Islamic shrine in Mecca. There is also still a separate movement within Islam:Ishmaelism. Abraham and his son Ishmael would be the builders of the Kaaba, in Mecca.
Lessons from the past
“Abolishing religions, in order to remove a bone of contention from society, also means denying a significant part of your history”, says Wessel.
“Not only the beautiful, but also the less beautiful sides of your own history. And ignoring or even denying such important episodes in your own history opens the door wide to making the same mistakes again.”
“I think it would be more convenient to look for the similarities in your religious history, to start a dialogue from there. Or in the case of the religions that started with Abraham:a trialogue. In my municipality we also regularly organize a day of dialogue. People then get the chance to see each other in church or mosque. Then you also notice how many practical problems you have to overcome. At the moment, for example, only boys from the mosque come to such a meeting. Apparently the threshold for letting girls participate is still too high. At such a meeting you do not agree with each other, but you do get to know each other much better. That alone is a win.”
The Holocaust was a dramatic turning point for modern reconciliation between Jews and Christians. But such a drama is not necessarily necessary for effective reconciliation between groups, according to Wessel.
“What you have to keep in mind is that you don't have to achieve everything right now. The Islamic State is especially violent because they believe that an ideal state for them must now be established and anyone who stands in the way or does not conform to it must be cut down. It would already make a big difference if people realize that you can also pursue your ideals for the future, for your children or for a day far away.”