Christianity and Political Islam (2010) by Mounir Ghabbour and Ahmed Osman. Quartet, London curious account behind the kinship and conscientious consanguinity of Christianity and Islam is almost unheard of these days. How many Christians know that the Virgin Mary appears more often in the Quran than in the New Testament? How many Muslims are aware that the Quran enjoins them "not to dispute with the People of the Book [Jews and Christians]? The world's two greatest monotheistic religions have progressively grown apart in the last millennium. Christianity has become synonymous with Western civilisation. The West with its superfluous pretensions to enlightenment confusingly perceives Islam, or rather the Islamic umma, as the very embodiment of "Oriental Despotism". The bravado on display in Mounir Ghabbour and Ahmed Osman's captivating treatise on the close relationship between Christianity and Islam could be classified into two kinds. First and less obviously so for most Westerners and many Muslims alike, is their emphasis on the shared origin of the two religions. Second, is that since the Crusades of the Middle Ages and especially in the aftermath of colonialism, imperialism and the rise of political Islam in a contemporary setting, the world's two greatest monotheistic religions have embraced different paths and their trails have traversed radically divergent and rival passages. Western Christianity has in Muslim eyes, tried to cover its colonial, neo-colonial and imperialist tracks. Islam, from a Western perspective, is synonymous with dogmatism and fanaticism -- particularly because of its insentience that religion is the prerogative of the public and the political domain rather than belonging to the realm of private affairs. The co-authors struck the right chord when in the first half of their book they stressed the common spiritual bedrock of both Christianity and Islam. In the second half they unabashedly air the two religions' dirty laundry. The Christianity prevailing in pre-Islamic Arabia and Islam as revealed to the Prophet Mohamed were offshoots of a particular type of Judaism -- virulently disapproving of the rabbinical. The co-authors create a richly textured canvas of pre-Islamic Arabia from impressionistic snippets of the lives and times of the Prophet Mohamed's ancestors. One or two anecdotes seem misplaced or over-familiar. However, arguments about ideological orientations and religious preferences are half the fun. The Prophet Mohamed was not proclaiming a new religion, but reaffirming the ancient faith. The Quran calls Jesus "God's Word" and esteems him as "eminent in this world and the next". Yet, there is a world of difference between Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam and it seems a stretch at any rate to lump together the Orthodox Churches of the East with the Protestants of the West, the Pentecostals, the Evangelicals and the Mormons under the umbrella of Christianity. The authors are not particularly concerned with this contemporary problem of Christianity. They make no attempt to reign in Christian diversity, past or present. They are however acutely conscious of how and why Christianity and Islam are more alike than different. Osman and Ghabbour tackle this crucial question from a historical perspective. They acknowledge that Muslim and Christian beliefs do converge when it comes to ethics, but they also concede that the two religions diverge distinctly when it comes to critical doctrinal questions, ritual, legal aspects and especially when it comes to the precise nature of the relationship between religion and politics. The authors deftly meander around the equally perplexing question of the connection between state and religion. Most Christians believe baptism is essential, and while Muslims declare John the Baptist, as the Prophet Yehia, in the Quran, the very notion of baptism is obnoxious to most Muslims. The sacrament is likewise a cornerstone of Christian ritual -- the wine and bread symbolically metamorphose into the blood and flesh of Christ, a concept that is not only repugnant but also offensive and down right heretical. To be fair, the authors avoid delving into such contentious issues and focus instead on what Islam and Christianity share in common. As Ahmed Osman is a liberal-minded Muslim and Mounir Ghabbour is a Coptic Christian, their perception of what Islam is and what it isn't might not be shared by all Muslims, especially the more militant Islamists. Equally compelling is their take on Christianity. They obviously concentrate on a particular notion of eastern Christianity, one prevalent in Arabia at the time of the rise of Islam. The first three chapters are revealingly entitled The Birth of Mohamed, The Monk's Prophecy and Waraqa's Cousin. In short, what they purport is that the Prophet Mohamed is the last of a long list of Judeo-Christian prophets. The authors begin with the Bible, with Genesis to be precise. "... the angel of God called unto Hagar out of Heaven, and said unto her... fear not. Arise, lift up the lad, for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water... and gave the lad to drink. And God was with the lad, and he grew... and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt." The lad in question is Ishmael, Ismail in Arabic -- Abraham's son. His mother was Abraham's Egyptian concubine Hagar. The Prophet Mohamed's own tribe, the Quraysh trace their origin to the progeny of Ishmael. The well alluded to in Genesis is none other than the Well of Zamzam, in the vicinity of Mecca, whose holy waters are cherished by all Muslims. The wilderness described in the Bible is Hijaz, Arabia. At this historical juncture, however, Islamic tradition veers sharply away from the Biblical version of events. Abraham, according to the Quran, built the Kaaba sanctuary with the help of his son Ishmael. Their descendants, the Quraysh tribe of Prophet Mohamed assumed the role of guardians of the Kaaba, a curious masonry, cubic shaped structure whose four corners face the four cardinal points of the compass. The Holy Black Stone became the focal point where Arabian tribes converged upon annually to perform a pilgrimage in homage of Abraham and Ishmael. The ancient pre-Islamic tradition was upheld under Islam and the pilgrimage to Mecca was designated as one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith. So what, the reader might ask, has this tradition got to do with Christianity. The authors recount the lineage of the Prophet Mohamed, tracing it to Hashim, the prophet's great grandfather, who obtained the right to superintend the feeding of the pilgrims in Mecca. Osman and Ghabbour quaintly narrate the love story between Hashim and Salma, a lady of the Najjar tribe based in Yathrib, later renamed Medina. The birth of an orphan prophet was widely anticipated among Christians of the Arabian Peninsula in the years immediately preceding the birth of Prophet Mohamed. A Christian monk, Buhayra, was the first to identify the adolescent Mohamed as a prophet long before Islam was revealed to the Prophet Mohamed. Even more intriguing, was that the Meccan Christian priest Waraqa ibn Nuwfal, the cousin of Prophet Mohamed's first wife Khadija, "a middle-aged upper middle class lady of forty twice widowed," fell in love with the future prophet and asked his hand for marriage. Few Westerners and perhaps many Muslims too, understand the significance and symbolism of this particular conjugal union. The Prophet Mohamed was overwhelmed. "While he needed a mother figure that loved him, helped him and protected him, she believed him to be the future saviour of Arabia." And here again, Christianity's and incidentally Egypt's special position in Islam is buttressed. A hadith, a saying by Prophet Mohamed, recalls that: "The most excellent women of Paradise are Khadija [his first wife] the daughter of Khuwaylid; Fatemah [his daughter] the daughter of Mohamed and mother of his revered grandsons Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein; Asiya the wife of Egypt's Pharaoh [who saved and raised Moses]; and Mary [the Virgin] daughter of Imran, mother of Jesus Christ." Miraculously, the authors keep the familiar Biblical tales from seeming too repetitious. That, too, is in keeping with the Islamic tradition and the Quran. Destiny made sure to break the mould. The authors' languid prose gives their passionate characters space to play their part in the pre- Islamic saga. Islam is not necessarily the religion that demolished the Bamiyan statues of Buddha in Afghanistan and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Islam in the eyes of the authors is the inheritor of a rich monotheistic tradition, a retelling of a timeless tale with palpable Judeo-Christian overtones. Their story is a passionate retelling of tightly coiled tales. That's fascinating. The second part of the book is less enthralling. It looks at the evolving relationship once Islam predominates in the Arab world and the Middle East not so much by peaceful propagation as by conquest -- occasionally with the tacit connivance of local Christians such as the Copts of Egypt. The work is a challenging scrutiny of the origins of Islam, charting the way forward for peaceful co-existence between Christianity and Islam. This is a tale of two mighty monotheistic religions, neither of which is monolithic. The vigour of resurgent political Islam is accentuated by the fact that it is not confined to the crisis-prone zones of the Middle East and North Africa. Muslims are less vulnerable than they used to be. Yet, contemporary Muslims are acutely conscious of their tarnished image in the West and their position, in spite of vast oil reserves, as the underdog. In the topsy- turvy logic of Western policymakers, Christianity should be able to keep chugging along. It is clear that the co-authors are keen to prop up the civil institutions that hold Muslim countries feebly together. The work, after all, was written prior to the revolutions that rocked, and still push and pull political developments in the Arab world. Answers provided by the co-authors for the future of the Arab world are unpartisan to a point and plentiful without getting bogged down in details. It is clear, though, that they do not espouse a militant Islamist outlook. Indeed, at times they display too many of the traditional anti-Islamist predilections. "Now that political Islam has managed to give the world a wrong picture about our religion, it is time for us Muslims to feel proud of our own heritage and put an end to their claim to represent us. This is not our Islam." This particular work is something of a quick read, one that delivers a closely-knit, and even more closely narrated and well-chosen chronology. They start with the origins of Islam and Christianity. Then the co-authors swiftly move on. "The Quran describes Christ as 'Word of Allah' (Sura 3:45). 'His (God's) word' (4:171), 'a spirit of Him' (4: 171). The Quran also says that God supported Jesus 'With the Holy Ghost' (2: 87; 253 and 5:110). The Quran further mentions that God, to Whom be ascribed all perfection and majesty, brought Jesus 'clear signs' (2:87; 253). He gave him 'The Gospel' (57:27), and made him 'Blessed' wherever he was (Sura 19:21). The Quran mentions that Jesus performed some miracles no man would be able to do (3: 49; 5: 110). "In order to understand Islam, we have to examine the roots of the religion that was proclaimed by the Prophet Mohamed in Mecca over fourteen centuries ago and investigate its relation to Judaism and Christianity." The delicious aspect of this timely study -- its guilty pleasure if you will -- is that it transports the reader to a time lost from memory by a majority of religious commentators and educators. More interesting is that we learn about the three religions and we understand how much they share in common. Among the monotheistic religions none emerges looking better than the other two. The co- authors ask the pertinent questions: "What is Islam and what is its teaching? Is it a religious faith or a political movement?" Just when I thought this work might get prepared for, it spews Scripture that most readers will be ill prepared for. The most shocking tales are about the nature of Jesus. Precious few Christians and perhaps even fewer Muslims know that the Quran specifically denotes Jesus as the Messiah. "The Quran tells us that Eissa [Jesus] was born of the virgin Mariam [Mary], who had not been touched by a man, as God had breathed into him of His Spirit." This book is not an idiosyncratic, intellectual take on political Islam from an ideological perspective simply bemoaning overbearing directives. That seems sensible, for the co-authors have chosen their high-brow battlefield with some skill. "The word 'Messiah' or 'Christ' had not been found in the Semitic languages, as it was not known by the Israelites during their early history. It is a word of Egyptian origin. Egyptians were the only people among the ancient peoples who anointed their kings with oils and perfumes at the time of their coronation. One of the ointments they used was crocodile fat -- a custom still practised in Nubia, as they believed it produced strong progeny. Having been anointed with this fat, the new king would be given the title 'Messiah', written in hieroglyphic with two crocodiles. The word crocodile in ancient Egyptian was 'meseh', so two crocodiles read 'meseeh' [Arabic for Messiah]. Thus, in the beginning the word Messiah was used to indicate a king, which was the title of all Egyptian pharaohs." More to the point, the "Christ the King" is an appellation of ancient Egyptian origin. "The Hebrew scribes of the Old Testament started to use this title for the Israelite kings, starting from Saul and David around the tenth century BC." Long before them, the pharaohs of Egypt used that term to designate their divine kings. Equally compelling is another of the co-authors' observations. Islam is not merely the successor to Judaism and Christianity, the inheritor of the historical and religious legacy of Abraham. Islam is the scion so to speak of a specific brand of Judeo- Christianity. "It is certain that the Banu Al-Najjar did not represent the rabbinical form of Judaism and that although they were part of the Jewish community as a whole, they were ready to accept Mohamed and his teachings." The Essenes, the co-authors surmise, are the true inspiration behind the revealed religion of the Prophet Mohamed. "If the three main tribes of Medina opposed Mohamed and his teachings, the Ansar must then have been influenced by another kind of Jew who favoured the prophet. This indicates that the Jews of Medina were not all the same. While the three main tribes of Banu Al-Nadir, Banu Qurayza and Banu Kaynuqa represented the Rabbinical orthodox teachings, some of the small clans such as Banu Al-Najjar which were attached to the Khazraj and Aws, followed a different kind of Judaism." As the appetite for understanding Islam surges across the continents of the world, interest in the Essenes is bound to expand. "What kind of Jews would have been ready to accept Mohamed's teachings, especially in regard to the resurrection of the dead and the Last Day?" The key to the co-authors' theory is inferred in the following statement. "There was a minority who accepted Christianity and became known as Judeo-Christians, These Jews, like Mohamed, regarded Jesus as a prophet, but denied his divinity." The co-authors at this point in their argument strut their stuff on the pages of their Christianity and Political Islam. "The reason they accepted his teachings so readily is that they belonged to the Essenes, who regarded him as the prophet they were waiting for. His Islamic teachings agreed completely with their Judeo-Christian beliefs." It is those qualifying phrases that set the tone of this curious work. "When we examine the life and beliefs of the Essenes, we find many similarities with both the Hanifs of Arabia and the Ansar of Medina. Mohamed himself was given to solitude and meditation on the barren rocky hills outside Mecca, like the Essenes of the Dead Sea." The text is illuminated further. "Like the Qumran literature, the Quran makes extensive use of the symbolism of light and darkness to distinguish between the realms of God and Satan." And so did the early Christians, as so does the New Testament. "Like the Qumran sect and the New Testament, Mohamed held the entire Old Testament, prophets and all, to be books of prediction." Then the book once again sharply veers towards the Arab conquest of Egypt. But instead of seeing these Coptic converts as problematic, some Muslim enthusiasts were actually seeking them out and undertaking to position them in prestigious offices of state. Few Muslim rulers felt that Christians should be excluded from high office. "After six centuries of suffering under Roman and Byzantine rule, very few Egyptians were ready to support the Byzantines, and the sympathies of the Copts were now by and large with the Muslims. As they could not take part in fighting the Byzantines, the Copts undertook to help the Muslims in the promotion of the war effort and the provision of stores; to build roads and bridges for them; and to provide them with moral support." The co-authors' enterprise is delicate, to be sure, especially considering the spate of violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in Egypt these days. In the post-25 January Revolution political Islam appears to Copts to be hostile both in intent and action. Here the co-authors are emphatic in that the militant Islamists are not so nice in their pretensions to elucidate and interpret Islamic Sharia law. "What the Brotherhood meant by Sharia Law was the law of the Islamic state under the caliphs, which is not sacred as it was not founded on Quranic statements or the Prophet's Tradition." Ghabbour and Osman are resounding in their belief that the Christians of the Middle East, the Copts and even moderate and open-minded Muslims have suffered much from militant Islamist mischief making. "There is no single reference either in the Quran or the words of the Prophet to either an Islamic state or a caliphate," they note. Politically, Egypt by the mid-20th century was facing a putsch organised by Islamist provocateurs. "When in 1952 Gamal Abdel-Nasser led a military coup to overthrow the monarchy, dissolving the parliament, cancelling the 1923 constitution and forbidding all political parties, he had the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the honeymoon between Nasser and the Brotherhood did not last long and following an assassination attempt by a member of the secret apparatus in 1954, Nasser abolished the Brotherhood, imprisoning and punishing thousands of its members. It was then that thousands of Muslim Brothers escaped from Egypt to the neighbouring Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, where they were welcomed and offered a safe place to live," the co-authors conclude. "The claim of political Islamic groups that they represent true Islam has no foundation. Those who kill innocent people in the name of Allah, have no authority from the Quran or from the Prophet of Islam." Accordingly, traditionalist Muslims, Sufis and the ordinary religious men and women who only want to practise their religion to the best of their abilities are no threat to Christians, and never had been. It is the militant Islamists with their belligerent, overbearing and pugnacious version of Islam that do constitute a threat to peace and political stability in Egypt, the Middle East and the world at large. "Political Islam is a new attempt to revive not Islam as a religion, but the Islamic caliphate which was dissolved by the Turks after World War II." Be that as it may, the catchetical summary of Islamic ritual and belief as the co-authors attest can only be properly viewed in the context of early Christianity as practised in the Arabian Peninsula. This is a charming book, after all, with a surreal chorus of ancestral characters thrown in. The reader might expect an overdose of rehashing clichés. Why? I suspect because the co-authors' perspective is certainly sui generis. By Gamal Nkrumah
