Some 10 centuries ago the Pope declared that all minority faiths should leave Jerusalem. This created uproar among the Muslims. Acknowledging their difficulties the Pope agreed to a religious debate – if the Muslims won they could stay; if they lost they would have to leave JerusalemSince their wisest most learned member all backed down, Mullah Nasruddin was selected as their representative. He agreed as long as neither would be allowed to talk – they could only communicate by mime!
The Pope and Nasruddin faced each other. The Pope began by raising 3 fingers; the Mullah looked back at him and raised his middle finger.
The Pope then waived his hand in a circle around his head but Nasruddin pointed to the ground and stomped his feet furiously.
The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine. The Mullah pulled out an apple from his coat pocket and started biting into it.
At which point the Pope stood up and admitted the Mullah was too good for him and that the Muslims could stay.
Afterwards the cardinals flocked around the Pope to ask what happened
When I held up 3 fingers, he said, to indicate that God is known to us in the Holy Trinity, the Mullah showed one finger to show that there is only one God, common to both religions. Then I waived my hand in the air to indicate that God is all around us everywhere, he pointed to the ground and stamped his feet pointing out that God is also right with us, here and now. Then I took out the elements to indicate the body and blood of Christ, whereby God absolves us from our sins. But the Mullah pulled out an apple suggesting the very fist sin of Adam and by biting into it showed how we are all guilty of sin. I just had to give up. He had an answer for everything I said.
On the other side of town the Muslims had crowded around Nasruddin to find out how he had won this sensational victory. Well, he began; first the Pope told me that the Muslims had three days to get out of Jerusalem. I told him ‘up yours’, Then he told me the entire city would be cleared of Muslims, I told him that we’re staying right here and none of us was leaving this land, which belongs to us too.
Then what happened? they asked ‘Oh nothing, the Pope just took out his lunch, so I took out mine!
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I suspect there have been a number of such misunderstanding, especially given that so much has to be translated. We talk of having so much in common, but inevitably we interpret even the same words differently according to our culture and understanding (our world view) - especially when it is something so dear to us as our theology. Interestingly there were times when the underlying issues came to the surface – the issue of ‘the Land’ came up many times and there was almost stamping of feet and certainly raised voices. Palestinian voices wanting to be heard by the Jews present.
Lord Hylton, who had called for reciprocity in defending the rights of the other to enjoy freedom of worship, also spoke of being last year in Israel/ Palestine and described it as the ‘most urgent situation in the whole world’. Unless an agreed solution can be found, he suggested they will be in despair and will be motivated to turn into suicide bombers and terrorists.
A Rabbi from the US spoke of his own pain at the situation in Israel ‘No one can love God who does not love his neighbour’, he insisted. Post 9-11 he had been accused in the USA of being an Arab lover. And his response was to say ‘Yes it’s true and its worse than you think - I love people of all colour, of all nations’ He shared a Jewish proverb ‘there’s nothing more whole than a broken human heart’.
In a sense the Nasruddin story is based on a premise of a clash of civilisations, certainly a polemic, confrontational approach – more debate than dialogue.
A Jewish filmmaker, Jacob Bender, talked about a Documentary film project ‘Reason and Revelation’ (reasonrevelation@aol.com
But it is in sharing food maybe not the Pope’s bread and wine, nor Nasruddin’s apple, but in our case a Lebanese Meze, It is by talking and eating around a table, that we are brought closer together. The Rabbi had earlier talked of the home as a small sanctuary and as the table in the home as an altar The Table becomes a central meeting place.
All the speakers expressed gratitude to the host of our Table – The emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani who initiated the Conference. It was indeed brave, avant-garde, and groundbreaking to host this type of ‘trialogue' on Muslim soil. The resolutions for the conference are part of what is needed in this part of the world to encourage more openness, less confrontation between the various branches of the Abrahamic Tree. I will certainly be quoting them next month in Kabul.
Hubert Jacques, from the Religious Dialogue Society in Paris, chaired one session and shared another proverb (almost Nasrauddin-like in its simplicity) from Africa:
‘In the jungle when the branches quarrel, the roots embrace each other’
from your own correspondent
Doha 27 April 06
[1] The Funniest Tales of Mullah Nasruddin selected and retold by Clifford Sawhney (Unicorn, New Delhi 2004)
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