Jesus of Arabia

On one of our five trips to Oman

Oman is one of my favourite countries. It is definitely my Number One place in the Middle East. In some ways, I even prefer it to Bulgaria, my adopted home.

Why do I like it so much? Well, I have only been to Oman five times, but every time I have been impressed with the dramatic scenery: the endless (and more or less deserted) beaches, the austere and craggy mountains, the green wadis with their falaj irrigation canals. Most of all, the Omanis themselves are lovely people. They are patient, hospitable and kind. Although they want to preserve traditional ways of life, they are a pretty open-minded and tolerant people. There are female police officers in Oman and a gay Sultan. 

One particular incident sticks in my mind. We were wandering through a village up in the mountains. It was morning and as we went past an open door, a young man invited us to come in and share some coffee and rather yummy dates. Would anyone in the UK ever welcome total strangers into their home?

He did not look Swedish.

Recently I watched a video about a book by the Reverend Canon Andrew Thompson, an Anglican priest. The book is called Jesus of Arabia. The author argues that Jesus would not have much in common with most Christians in modern America or in the UK. (About ten years ago, Greenday made much the same point in their song, The Jesus of Suburbia.) In many ways, Jesus would feel more at home in a traditional, family-orientated Middle Eastern setting. Yes, maybe that is true, but I do not think that He would feel happy among the motorways and shopping malls of Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Would Jesus have liked the Burj Khalifa, that huge glass and steel spike that epitomises modern Dubai?  

Yes, Jesus probably did not have blonde hair and blue eyes. He was not Scandinavian, but that does not mean that He was an Arab or a Muslim.


In a recent newspaper interview, the author of Jesus of Arabia, the Rev Thompson, said ,“A lot of conversations between Muslims and Christians get bogged down in dogma and it is not really helpful.” But what is "dogma"? Isn't it another word for "faith" or "belief"? So he is really saying that Christians should have no faith and it would be helpful if they did not believe anything?

Respect and mutual acceptance? 

Then the Rev. Thompson is recorded as having said, “I want to promote education between our two communities which is different from proselytising. 
Education helps us to know one another – meeting with respect and mutual acceptance and we can only do that by recognising our shared heritage in Jesus.” But didn't Jesus Christ tell His followers to make disciples of all nations? Rev. Thompson obviously thinks that Jesus made a big mistake and what we really need is "education" and "mutual acceptance". But when I was teaching in the UAE, at RAKESS (the plural garden implement school), the principal told all of the teachers that we were not to say anything at all about religion. The students had their lessons in Islamic Studies, but that was it. And while Muslims in the UK can criticize the Christian Church as much as they like, any foreigner in the UAE saying anything bad about Islam will find himself in big trouble. So much for "education" and "mutual acceptance"!    

A mosque, on the road to Taif

And what exactly is "our shared heritage in Jesus"? The Quran has some silly stories about Jesus that are copied from the gnostic gospels, books that the Christians long ago rejected as being unhistorical and unreliable. A good case can be made for dating all of the canonical gospels to the first century AD, but the authorship and the origins of the gnostic gospels have always been very dubious at best.

I find the title of Thompson's book, Jesus of Arabia, rather misleading or even downright dishonest. Yes, okay, Israel is in the Middle East, but it is not a normal “Middle Eastern” country. Like so many clergymen in the Church of England, anti-Semitism is hidden behind a veneer of "toleration" and pro-Arab sentiments.

How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews.

Lots of people know that old rhyme, but the reply is not so well known.

But odder still
Are those who choose
A Jewish God
But hate the Jews.

The title, Jesus of Arabia, suggests that Jesus was an Arab and a Muslim, whereas Jesus was (and is) a Jew. For some strange reason, the Jews are not very popular in most of the Middle East. Plenty of Arabs would like to see the state of Israel wiped off the map, so would Jesus really be at home in a modern Muslim country? Probably not. According to the Gospels, Jesus was in the habit of quoting the Old Testament. Does the O.T. match up with the Quran? Not really, but that does not seem to bother our 21st century Vicar of Bray, sir.

He was, Jesus wasn't.

The film of Lawrence of Arabia, with old Peter O'Toole wearing a bed sheet and galloping across the desert on a camel, came out when I was a boy. I remember visiting the church in Dorset where he was buried after his motorbike crash. But Lawrence spoke Arabic, adopted Arab dress, did his most famous exploits in Arabia and in many ways he was the inspirational leader of the Arab revolt against Ottoman rule. After World War One was over, Lawrence became disgusted and angry because the British government did not keep their promises to the Arabs. So old T.E. probably deserves the title, "Lawrence of Arabia". But "Jesus of Arabia"? No way. Jesus the Jew is a lot closer to the truth, but that title for a book has already been used by Professor Vermes of Oxford University. (I once heard Vermes give a lecture when I was up at Oxford, a long time ago!) 

Jesus of Israel would be a better title

Jesus of Arabia is supposed to be a contribution to inter-faith dialogue, leading to greater understanding and tolerance between different religions. Well, I have no objection to a bit of peace and mutual respect, but Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and what is left of ISIS do not seem so keen on these things. In many Muslim countries today, the penalty for apostasy (turning away from Islam) is death. And can you bring some Bibles into Saudi Arabia and freely distribute them? Of course not. So much for inter-faith dialogue and toleration! All over the Middle East, Christian groups are facing appalling persecution, such as the Copts in Egypt and the Yazidis in Iraq. 

On the Christian side, how about this statement of Jesus in John's Gospel, "No one comes to the Father except through me"? Somehow I don't think that John 14,6 leaves much "wriggle room" for inter-faith dialogue. And where in the Gospels does it say anything about Jesus commanding His followers to have meaningful discussions and inter-faith dialogue? Certainly not in chapter 18 of Matthew's Gospel, the Great Commission, where Christians are told to make disciples of all nations.

Would Jesus feel at home here?

In some ways, I suppose that we ought to welcome any attempt to reduce tensions and promote religious toleration, however unsuccessful. This book springs from Canon Thompson's experiences in the United Arab Emirates. But it is not in the UAE that one encounters Islam in its purest (or its most extreme) form, but in Saudi Arabia. Similarly, you will not get a true picture of Roman Catholicism by chatting with some RCs in Sweden. You should go to Rome if you want to see the Vatican, meet a cardinal or two, and experience Catholicism in its most concentrated and undiluted form. 



Moon Mountain with a hot dog

Mecca (or Makkah) and Medinah are both in Saudi Arabia. So is Saudi Arabia, aka the KSA or "the Magic Kingdom", becoming a more tolerant and liberal place? No, not much has changed since we were there, nearly twenty years ago. If Islam has not really changed in its heartland, Saudi Arabia, then is there really any possibility that it will ever change?



Camels? Or C. of E. clergy?

Someone once explained to me that you should never call a Muslim a "fundamentalist", as all Muslims believe in the fundamentals of their faith. (Most of the priests of the Church of England, on the other hand, do not seem to believe in anything, except the importance of covering up clerical child abuse.)

And is the UAE really a broad-minded, liberal and tolerant place? On the surface, it appears that it is, as there are some churches in the UAE and so you might say that there is a degree of religious toleration, but not much. Expats outnumber the Emiratis by about 8:1, so this policy of "toleration" really just means allowing the foreigners to practise their religion, as long as they keep it to thermselves and their places of worship must have official government approval. Emiratis who abandon Islam for another faith will soon find out how little religious toleration there really is in the UAE.

Irena had to wear her abiyyah in Jeddah.

   
One reviewer praised the book because it drew attention to "how the two religions mirror each other, despite their differences". Oh really? For Christians, the death of Jesus upon the cross is of fundamental (one might even say that it is of "crucial") importance, but the Quran explicitly says that Jesus did not die upon the cross. In the same way, God is given lots of different names and titles in the Bible, but He is never once called "Allah". So could someone please explain to me how these two faiths "mirror" each other, when in fact they totally disagree on things that are so important? Surely God ought to know what His name is and whether or not His Son died at Calvary. On the wall of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, it says that Allah has no Son and so that Son could never have died on a cross for our sins. 

In many ways, Irena and I enjoyed our years in the Middle East. I am glad that I made some Muslim friends, one of whom was a senior judge in Egypt. If we cannot agree with our friends, then the right thing to do is talk about something else. Friendship and good manners are a valuable things. Truth is even more precious, but if we cannot agree about what is (or is not) the truth in our religions, then there are always lots of other things that we could talk about instead. We should not allow our disagreements, however sincere, to spoil our friendships with those who hold to a different religion or with those who have no religion at all. Jesus did, after all, say that the peacemakers would be blessed.








So am I going to buy a copy of Jesus of Arabia? I do not think so. And I am not going to waste my money on a copy of The Wisdom of Brexit or Donald Trump the Feminist.