Background:
Cornelis Hulsman was invited by Rev. Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas Fund in the UK to attend a Christian conference in Cyprus that dealt with the position of Christians in various predominantly Muslim countries. He interviewed numerous of Christians at this conference.
The four countries in focus are Iran, Pakistan, Ghana, and Lebanon, and the interviews are in regards to the Christian populations in these countries. While Iran and Pakistan are predominantly Muslim, Ghana and Lebanon have much larger Christian populations, but this does not alter the fact that Christians are nonetheless discriminated. The focus also lies on relations between Christians and Muslims in their everyday lives.
Side A:
Iran
Christians in Iran face difficulties with the Islamic government in the nation. Many Christians have restrictions, especially Evangelical Christians, Farsi-speaking Christians, and converted Christians. The Islamic government of Iran does not recognise converted Christians as it is not a widely understood phenomenon that one may want to change their religion later on in their life. A person is born into their religion, which they take from their parents and that is it. In terms of the Farsi-speaking (ethnic language of Iran) Christians, the government perceives them as propagating their religions to Iranian Muslims. While Armenian Christians and Assyrians are tolerated because of their history in Iran, the Farsi-speaking Christians are not accepted at all.
Pakistan
Out of the 4 provinces of Pakistan, Punjab has the largest number of Christians. Pakistani Christians are known to be more urbanised than Pakistani Muslims, and this is due to their demographic change from rural areas to cities. The biggest issue Pakistani Christians face is the blasphemy law. It is common for disputes to occur between Muslims and Christians, whereby the Christian is easily implicated under the law, and this is seen as somewhat of a trap. It is difficult to have religious conversations in Pakistan, and the Christian community feels threatened and uncomfortable when having to watch their words so closely. On the other hand, Christians have quite a number of freedoms in the constitution. There are Christian institutions in Pakistan, and Christians are able to worship God freely. According to the minister who is interviewed, it is more on the social level that Christians face discrimination. Pakistan still has low literacy levels, thus there are many unsophisticated people who follow traditions and who live in a certain cultural milieu or bubble, whereby they might not be so accepting of others.
Ghana
There are 21 million people in Ghana of whom 15 million are Christian, 4 million are Muslim and the other 2 million have different faiths. Around 1828, the missionaries came to Ghana and established schools and colleges. Out of the 10 regions in Ghana, most Christians are in the situated in the South. The Muslim population can mainly be found in the Northern part of Ghana, but according to the interviewee, they are creeping down to the Southern part of the country. Christians realise that not all Northerners are Muslim, there are a number of Christians as well, but allegedly they do not mix well with the Southern Christians of Ghana. Since January 1995, the interviewee has witnessed 7 clashes between Christians and Muslims, whereby Muslims are accusing Christians of quoting the Qurʾān which the Muslims are not fond of. The interviewee argues that if Muslims quote from the Bible, why can the Christians not quote from the Qurʾān? Are these books not open books for anyone to quote from? Muslims and Christians came together for dialogue, where it was said that these religions must live together in harmony and peace as God’s children, respect each other and each other’s faiths in God. The differences must be resolved peacefully.
Moreover, in the central part of Ghana, there are allegedly a lot of Muslims converting Christians to Islam. During the 1980s, the Muslims wanted more Islamic education taught in Arabic and English. There are also Islamic NGOs who are active in helping the needy, while simultaneously propagating their faith. There is a Muslim programme on Ghanaian TV, in which it has allegedly been said that the children of Ghana should not be sent to Christian schools because they will be indoctrinated with Western ideas.
Side B:
Lebanon
SAT-7 is a satellite channel set up by Christians in the Middle-East. Many Christians do not have access to the media in the Middle-East, except in Lebanon and occasionally in Egypt. Christians are misrepresented whereby many Muslims have a distorted image of them according to the Christian media network. Their mission is to show Muslims the image of Middle-Eastern Christians, and change the idea that Western and Middle-Eastern Christians are the same. The informing of the Muslims of Christianity would decrease the hostility that has been built up due to this bad image of Christians. Furthermore, SAT-7 desires to include the Christians into the media, and diminish their feelings of isolation.
