JERUSALEM — “For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment. `You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” (Galatians 5:13-15)

In the midst of the recent turmoil, St. Paul reminds us that God has created us to live in community, all equally valued children yet wondrously diverse in culture and traditions.We condemn the defamation of all religious symbols, prophets and holy writings because it only provokes offence and builds walls of hatred between East and West. We also condemn all violent acts that threaten others as intolerable and unacceptable.

Are we really losing our civility to such a degree that we are incapable of rational discourse and can only resort to violence and desecration?

As the renowned Palestinian American Professor Edward Said wrote: “No culture or civilisation exists by itself; none is made up of things like individuality and enlightenment that are completely exclusive to it; and none exists without the basic human attributes of community, love, value for life and all the others.”

Today, in our increasingly globalised world, different cultures and religious traditions are coming into contact with one another faster than we can learn to understand them.

This crisis illustrates how vital it is that we also learn to understand one another. The European world needs to understand that religion is still at the heart of identity and values for both religious and secular people in the Middle East. The Muslim world needs to learn how to live in a global, pluralistic world while remaining true to religious values.
Recent developments illustrate the fear and anger that arise when we see one another through the eyes of prejudice and stereotypes. In some parts of Europe, growing populations of immigrants are seen as threatening the status quo, and there is growing fear and resentment. In some parts of the Arab and Muslim world, there is anger and humiliation at being stereotyped and labelled as terrorists. Many in the Arab and Muslim world's feel that the West uses a double standard of justice and human rights in dealing with them. This all creates fertile ground for political and religious extremists to transform underlying political realities into religious wars that can be catastrophic. We must not allow extremists to hijack religion or hold justice and human rights hostage.

Arab Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, have learned many ways to live as neighbours. During the fast of Ramadan, many Christians will refrain from eating or drinking during the day in public, not because there is a law against it, but out of respect and care for Muslims. Similarly, during our cross processions on the Via Dolorosa, Muslims will show respect and even help us when they can, even though they don't believe in the theology of the cross.

These small acts of respect have built a strong and resilient relationship of mutual understanding and respect. Arab Palestinian Christians stand over the chasm dividing the Arab Muslim and the Western worlds, our hands reaching out in both directions. With Islam growing in Europe and the West, our long history of peaceful relations can offer a model for coexistence.

This situation presents both threat and opportunity. We must together, all of us, create a mechanism to condemn Islamophobia and other racist behaviour, just as we have created a mechanism to reject anti-Semitism. We must create a mechanism to condemn all forms of violence as unacceptable and intolerable. Instead of expending our energy increasing the polarisation, we should commit to seeking together a formula for how to live with one another in mutual respect and understanding.

Martin Luther King said it well: “I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.”

These past days we have learned this vividly. How much more will it take before we realise we must use our freedoms with greater responsibility for the sake of our neighbours?

People of faith and courage, it is time we stand up and lead the way back to “the public commons” and civil discourse that values and builds community. We, as Christians, believe that we are all one, united in the body of Christ, and that when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. As human beings, we are also one united global family, and it is time to realise that what hurts one part of that family hurts us all.
We challenge Muslim and Christian leaders to gather here in the Middle East to create a code of ethics and conduct by which religions and nations should treat one another and deal with religious differences. We pledge to take on this urgent task of making religion a driving force for reconciliation and justice, part of the solution to our world's problems rather than a source of conflict.

If people of faith and living conscience do not stand up and call our religions and our people back to the common values and commitments of love, justice, peace, mutual respect — even forgiveness — who will?

It is time to lead and heal with faith and courage.

The writer is head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, president of the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches and vice president of the Lutheran World Federation. This article was contributed to The Jordan Times by the Common Ground News.