c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS and author of”Turn Toward the Wind.”)

UNDATED _ When my friend Annie told me she was praying and fasting during Ramadan, she took me by surprise. After all, as far as I knew she was a charismatic Christian.

When I asked her why a Christian would celebrate an Islamic holiday she explained she, like a growing number of Christians around the world, fast in solidarity with their Muslim friends and neighbors.

It sounded like an interesting idea, so I began to do some research. I stumbled upon a booklet called”30 Day Muslim Prayer Focus”published by WorldChristian News.

The introduction to the booklet says Christians need to grow in love for their Muslim brothers and sisters. It asks Christians to pray for more missionaries to serve the Muslim people and suggests prayers focus specifically on Muslim leaders, schools and geographic areas of the Islamic world.

It also explains that fasting is a good idea, but is not required for Christians as it is for Muslims observing Ramadan.

The booklet offers daily glimpses of various aspects of the Muslim world. It is educational and respectful, showing some of the struggles of the different people groups, especially those in the developing world.

I wondered how Muslims felt about sharing Ramadan with Christians, so I called the American Muslim Council in Washington.

Saleh Saleh, the council’s development director, was measured in his response.”We know that some Christians fast in solidarity with us during Ramadan, and we encourage that,”he said.”Fasting is not unique to Islam. Even the Koran tells us to fast just as Christians and Jews fasted before us.”Fasting helps us all understand the needy and practice self-restraint. Whoever does it is helped by it, and we celebrate their desire to come closer to the truths one learns through it.” But Saleh was not quite so happy about the idea of Christians trying to convert Muslims.”Everybody hates conversion,”he said.”No religion likes it when someone else is trying to change people’s minds. We want to spread love and peace, not force people to believe. It is their choice. Allah has given us brains to use to choose.” Some Christians may have a hard time separating a love for Muslims from a desire for their conversion. But Peter Kuzmic, a Croatian who teaches both at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts and a seminary he founded in Croatia, sees it differently.

Having watched some of the atrocities committed against Bosnian Muslims by groups calling themselves Christian, he feels that Christians must”earn the right to be heard”by followers of Islam.

He has worked in Muslim communities, bringing aid and helping the people without any strings attached.

Kuzmic tells his Croatian seminary students they are called to”clean the face of Jesus”by showing true Christian love to Muslims and a willingness to serve them. Without demonstrating a commitment to that type of witness, they have no right to speak about their faith.

Muslims in the United States may not be persecuted by Christians, but they often feel insulted by the way they are characterized. In the December issue of The Minaret, the leading Islamic American magazine, an article quotes a half dozen references by Pat Robertson it calls part of his”smear campaign”against Muslims.

The author of the article notes that”The 700 Club”host has been approached by Muslim groups who have asked him to stop making provocative statements. Yet, the remarks continue on his show and in his writings, according to the list of statements from as recently as late October.”What he (Robertson) says hurts not only Muslims but every decent American who believes that religion is not a source of conflict,”Aslam Abdullah, the author of the article, concluded.

All of this leads me to believe Christians in the United States _ and in other parts of the world _ should, in fact, pray for Muslims.

But instead of praying for conversions, they should pray that a spirit of love and respect would pervade all contacts Christians have with Muslims. Otherwise, Muslims have ample reason to fear or dislike Christians instead of being attracted to what they represent.

MJP END BOURKE