IN AFRICA, ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY ARE GROWING - AND
BLENDING
By Abraham McLaughlin
The Christian Science Monitor
January 26, 2006
LAGOS, NIGERIA - At first, it seems a surprising sight:
inside a two-story
mosque in sub-Saharan Africa's largest metropolis hangs
a life-size portrait
of Jesus Christ.
Yet worshipers at "The True Message of God Mission" say
it's entirely
natural for Christianity and Islam to coexist, even
overlap. They begin
their worship by praying at the Jesus alcove and then
"running their
deliverance" -- sprinting laps around the mosque's
mosaic-tiled courtyard,
praying to the one God for forgiveness and help. They
say it's akin to
Israelites circling the walls of Jericho -- and Muslims
swirling around the
Ka'ba shrine in Mecca.
This group -- originally called "Chris-lam-herb" for its
mix-and-match
approach to Christianity, Islam, and traditional
medicine -- is a window on
an ongoing religious ferment in Africa. It's still up
for debate whether
this group, and others like it, could become models for
Muslim-Christian
unity worldwide or whether they're uniquely African. But
either way, they
are "part of a trend," says Dana Robert, a Boston
University religion
professor.
Amid intense sectarian violence in this half-Muslim,
half-Christian country,
these groups serve as tolerant peacemakers. Also, with
widespread poverty
and health concerns here, people are seeking practical,
profitable religion
more than rigid doctrine.
Before Islam and Christianity arrived in Africa, people
here "believed in
deities being close" -- in gods who resided in trees or
rivers and helped or
hurt locals daily, explains Kamaldeen Balogun, an
Islamic studies professor
at Olabisi Onabanjo University in southeastern Nigeria.
"You in the West are satisfied with one hour of church
on Sunday," says Mr.
Balogun. But for people in Africa, who he says need so
many solutions, "This
is about a practical way of life," about a willingness
to combine
Christianity or Islam with their own traditions to "see
if they can make
something new" -- something that will help.
Worshipers at the "True Message" mission say unifying
the two theologies has
made a major difference in their lives.
A slight woman with a quick smile, Kuburat Hamzat says
she came here in 1998
with a severe menstruation problem. She was embraced by
the mission's "man
of God," a soft-spoken, bald man named Samusideen Saka.
He told her,
"Dancing will not kill you" and prescribed 91 laps of
"running deliverance"
each day. He also explained the commonalities of the
great faiths to Ms.
Hamzat who had grown up in Islam. That understanding,
she says, changed her.
"Because I understood that in my mind, I got healed,"
she says. Her problem
hasn't recurred, she says. Others say they've been cured
of barrenness,
mental illness, and other troubles.
Pastor Saka explains that his father was an herbalist
and that both Muslims
and Christians would come to him for healing. Although
he grew up Muslim,
and has been to Mecca on pilgrimage several times, he
couldn't comprehend
Nigeria's sectarian strife. He now considers himself a
Christian, "but that
doesn't mean Islam is bad."
Quite the opposite. Next to his mosque is a
televangelist's dream -- an
auditorium with 1,500 seats, banks of speakers, a live
band, and klieg
lights. On Sundays the choir switches easily between
Muslim and Christian
songs, and Pastor Saka preaches from both the Bible and
the Koran. His
sermons are often broadcast on local TV.
The broader context here is Africa's dramatic shift in
recent decades to
Christianity and Islam. During the 20th century, fully
40 percent of
Africa's population moved from traditional religions to
"different shades of
Christianity," says Philip Jenkins, a history and
religion professor at the
University of Pennsylvania. It is, he adds, "the largest
religious change
that has ever occurred in history." There are debates
about whether
Christianity or Islam is spreading faster in Africa, but
clearly they're
both on the rise -- and sometimes are the source of
tension.
In Nigeria's religious city of Jos (short for "Jesus Our
Savior") the
government says 50,000 people died between 1999 and 2004
in sectarian
clashes. Until a peace deal last year, Sudan's northern
Muslims and southern
Christians were at war for two decades.
Clearly, the religious revolution is still shaking out.
"People are
converting rapidly, but they don't necessarily have
instruction" in the
details of their faiths, says Boston University's
Professor Robert. Nor have
they had "time for their belief system to solidify." It
is, she says, "still
shifting." She argues that eventually the faithful will
choose one religion
or another, and the hybrids will fade away.
But the ferment is quite evident on the chaotic streets
of Lagos, which is
home to some 10 million people. Hundreds of
church-sponsored banners scream
out, "It's your day of RECOVERY @ LAST where life's
pains are healed" or
"Jesus Christ: A friend indeed! Even in times of need!!"
Healing is a regularly promised feature of churches
across Africa. It's
symbolic of a key element of the continent's religious
explorations --
fusing faith and rationality, Professor Balogun says.
According to Western
thought, with its emphasis on rationality, "Everything
that goes up must
come down," he says. But a more African approach is
that, "By divine
intervention it may not come down." In fact, his
university is initiating a
degree focusing on the religion-science nexus.
Meanwhile, it's not just Saka who's exploring the common
ground between
Christianity and Islam. Sitting in a wrought-iron
throne, swathed in silky
white fabric, the founder of "Chrislam" has these words
for followers of the
two great faiths: "The same sun that dries the clothes
of Muslims also dries
the clothes of Christians." Stroking his beard, the man
named Tela Tella
says, "I don't believe God loves Christians any more
than Muslims."
His followers calls him His Royal Holiness, The
Messenger, Ifeoluwa or "The
Will of God." Since the religion's founding two decades
ago, this small band
has been gathering almost daily to hear his message of
inclusiveness -- that
Christians and Muslims, "who are sons of Abraham, can be
one."
