Download Christian-Muslim Relations Backgrounder

Christianity & The Middle East:
An Outlook On Current Christian-Muslim Relations
For 1,400 years, individuals of the Christian and Muslim faiths have endured a history of
conflict and hostility toward one another.
According to Pew Research Center, Muslims are expected to grow more than twice as
fast as the overall world population between 2010 and 2015. Contrastingly, Christianity is
projected to have a net loss of 60 million adherents. By 2050, Muslims will be nearly as
numerous as Christians, currently the world’s largest religious group at 31.4 percent of
the global population.
Considering the exponential growth of Islam, Christian-Muslim relations are in dire need
of resolve if both groups want to see a peaceful future.
“Evangelical Christians and Muslims are both focused on making converts, and that’s
playing out around the world and in local neighborhoods,” said Ed Stetzer, executive
director of LifeWay Research. “They are, by definition, competing faiths. When you
combine that with distinctly different worldviews and understanding of God, evangelicals
and Muslims start with a cultural and religious chasm between them.”
Open Doors USA, a non-profit organization focused on serving persecuted Christians in
more than 60 countries, reported approximately 100 million Christians are persecuted
worldwide. While the vast majority of those who claim Islam as their faith are indeed
peaceful people, Islamic extremism is the main source of persecution in 40 of the 50
countries on the Open Doors 2015 World Watch List (WWL). Nine of the 10 countries with
the worst records for Christian persecution have populations that are at least 50 percent
Muslim, according to the assessment of persecution in the Open Doors USA's WWL 2015
and population information published by the State Department and the Central
Intelligence Agency.
According to the latest report from Church In Need, a Catholic Charity focused on aiding
persecuted Christians, and the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated
to promoting religious freedom worldwide, Christians in the Middle East are in danger of
extinction. Twelve years ago, the Middle East was home to more than 1 million Christians.
Now down to a mere 275,000, Christians could completely disappear from the region
within the next decade if the trend continues.
With extremist groups like ISIS and the Taliban threatening Christianity’s very existence,
the presence of Christians in the region is likely to be wiped off the map. A recent
Christianity and The Middle East, page 2
FoxNews.com article stated, “The dwindling numbers are due to genocide, refugees
fleeing to other countries, those who are internally displaced, and others hiding in plain
sight and not allowing their faith to be publicly known. A dozen Christian families flee Iraq
each day.”
With statistics like these appearing daily in the headlines, Muslim-Christian relations are
strained and if anything, confusing.
With extremists on both sides declaring that the other has no right to exist and carrying
out violent acts against one another, the vast majority of Christians and Muslims can coexist, but it is not a road without struggle.
While only a small percentage of Muslims adhere to radical Islam, the incorrect
perceptions that all Muslims are potential threats have lead to western cultures looking
unfavorably at Islam.
Only 37 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Islam: the lowest favorability
rating since 2001, according to a 2010 ABC News/Washington Post poll. According to a
2010 Time magazine poll, 28 percent of voters do not believe Muslims should be eligible
to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, and nearly one-third of the country thinks followers of
Islam should be barred from running for president.
A story entitled, “Interfaith Dialogue in an Age of Extremism: Revisiting Muslim-Christian
Relations after 'Nostra Aetate',” on ABCNews.com in January of 2015 stated, “Muslims
and Christians have had to contend with addressing the endless conflicts and bloodshed
stemming from American-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, competing geopolitical
interests in the oil-rich gulf and the prolonged Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Likewise, the
rise of militant Islamism, imminent threat of terrorism, so it seems, and subsequent
Islamophobic attitudes re-emerging in the West, have diminished the chances of
rejuvenating meaningful dialogue between Muslims and Christians.’
Muslim and Christian relations are in serious need of sustained dialogue and more
education about each other’s faiths and core beliefs. More importantly, both groups must
find a common ground, partnering with each other to solve problems and bridge religious
and communal differences in a period of heightened political violence and persecution .
World Vision U.S. President Rich Stearns said, “We can hold deep and fundamental
differences with people of other faiths, yet share mutual concerns, work together and
overcome common problems. That isn’t a magic formula for world peace, but it is a first
step. It is harder to hate someone when you’ve worked alongside each other. It is harder
to condemn a group of people when you need them as partners. Especially now, when
religion is used as an excuse for violence, we need to hear these stories of partnership
showing us how faith can bring us together to save lives and promote peace.”