Religious strife happens all too often. Whether we read history books or current headlines, there are far too many stories of people hating others and even resorting to persecution and violence because of religious differences. This seems to be especially true among the three major Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The bitterness between these three religions can seem so deeply entrenched that you could wonder if they ever have, or ever will, manage to peacefully coexist. Fortunately, though the problems are real and very serious, they do not tell the full story. There are numerous instances of mutual respect and peace between these faiths. More than that, there are many stories of the people of one of these religions risking everything to defend members of a different faith. These stories are also real, and retelling them shows us what the world could be like if every person of every faith lived out the love of neighbor that all religions claim as a central tenet.

10 Syrian Muslims:


In 1915, the leaders of the declining Ottoman
Empire decided they wanted a “Turkey for
Turks” and began their own program of what
is now called “ethnic cleansing.” They targeted
the region of Armenia, where approximately
2.5 million Armenian Christians lived. The
systematic massacres, seizures of property,
and deportations, which claimed more than a
million lives, have become known as the
Armenian Genocide.
There was very little international outcry about
the atrocities, and no nation intervened on
behalf of the Armenians. However, there was
sanctuary given to them in Syria, and
especially the city of Aleppo. Syria’s
population consisted mainly of Arab Muslims,
but Syria was a region where Muslims,
Christians, and Jews had a long history of
peaceful coexistence. They welcomed the
Armenians and offered the refugees a safe
haven.
It is a terrible irony that, starting in late 2012,
hundreds of thousands of Syrians have
become refugees, escaping the violence of the
terrorist group ISIL. The international
community is still struggling with the best
way to deal with this crisis, but Armenian
communities in Europe, Canada, and the
United States have become advocates for the
descendants of the Muslims who rescued
them a century ago.

I dey come

9 Refik And Xhemal Veseli:
Albania is another European nation where Christians, Muslims, and Jews have lived together in peace for a very long time. A good example of this can be found in the story of a 17-year-old Muslim youth, named Refik Veseli, who worked as an apprentice to Jewish photographer Moshe Mandil in Tirana. When the Nazis occupied the country in April 1941, Refik realized that Moshe was in danger. Refik took Moshe, his wife Ela, and their two children with him to his parents’ home in the remote mountain village of Kruja. Refik’s brother Xhemal had also befriended a Jewish family, the ben Yousefs, in Tirana, and also brought them to Kruja for safety. The two families remained safely with the Veselis through many dangerous situations until after the war. The courage and kindness of the Veselis is only one of many stories of Albanian Muslims sheltering Jews according to their honor code of besa, which literally means, “to keep the promise.” Among other things, this code requires Albanian Muslims to offer sanctuary to all refugees and is the subject of the 2012 documentary Besa: The Promise.

8 The Greek Bishops:
Greece is a place where Orthodox Christians and Jews had lived together in peace for centuries. This was shown in the official letter of protest that Archbishop Damaskinos and 27 prominent Greek leaders signed after the Nazis deported many Jews from Greece. The letter said, in part: In our national consciousness, all the children of Mother Greece are an inseparable unity: they are equal members of the national body irrespective of religion. [ . . . ] Our holy religion does not recognize superior or inferior qualities based on race or religion, as it is stated: “There is neither Jew nor Greek” and thus condemns any attempt to discriminate or create racial or religious differences. Our common fate both in days of glory and in periods of national misfortune forged inseparable bonds between all Greek citizens, without exemption, irrespective of race. The archbishop published the letter and quietly instructed his churches to issue false baptism certificates to Jews to hide their identities. When threatened with a firing squad by the SS commander for Greece, Damaskinos said, “According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our prelates are hanged, not shot . Please respect our traditions!” Just as inspiring is the example of Bishop Chrystomos and Mayor Lucas Karrer of the island of Zakynthos, where 275 Jews lived. When the Nazis demanded a list of the names of all the Jews on the island, the bishop responded with a letter that had only two names: his and the mayor’s. The Nazis searched the island, but the population had successfully hidden all of the Jews. When the island was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1953, Israel was the first nation to send relief. Along with the help came a letter reading, “The Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and what they did for us.”

7 The Denmark Rescue:
There is a commonly told story about the Danish Jews and the things their countryfolk did to protect them. The Nazis occupied Denmark in April 1940. Sometime after that, the story goes, the SS regional commandant went to King Christian X and demanded that all Danish Jews be required to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes so they could be easily identified. The Nazis were shocked when the king appeared in public a few days later wearing a yellow star on his clothes. He encouraged all Danes to follow his example so there would be no way to distinguish Jew from Gentile in Denmark. Sadly, this beautiful story is an urban legend, but it does accurately reflect the feelings of the people of Denmark. The Nordic nation was predominantly Lutheran Christian, but there was a long-standing tradition of good relations between Christians and Jews. In fact, the bonds between Jews and Christians were so strong that the Nazis initially decided not to press the issue of what they called the “Jewish question.” There was also a mutual resistance to the Nazis and their occupation, and Danes of all religions participated in acts of resistance and sabotage. In September 1943, faced with the Allied advance, the Nazis decided to deport all Danish Jews to concentration camps. Learning of this, the Danish Resistance, aided by much of the population, moved quickly to organize an evacuation. Jewish families were hidden in private homes, churches, and even the properties of the Danish royal family while Danish officials used all manner of delaying tactics to prevent searches. Through the month of October, boats, mainly fishing vessels, were used to ferry 7,200 Jews and 700 Gentile family members to safety in neutral Sweden, making this the largest rescue of Jews from occupied Europe in World War II.

6 The Paris Grand Mosque:


There are many stories of heroic groups and
individuals who risked themselves to shelter
Jews from the Nazis. One of the most
unexpected is that of Si Kaddour Benghabrit,
the founder and rector of the Grand Mosque of
Paris and his community.
The mosque was built in 1922 to honor the
Muslim nations of North Africa who had
helped France in World War I. The Nazis
occupied Paris in June 1940. In July 1942,
they arrested 12,884 Jews, including 4,115
children, with the plan to send them all to the
Auschwitz death camp. However, the mosque
provided a natural safe haven. The Sephardic
Jews from North Africa spoke Arabic and
shared many of the cultural habits of their
Muslim neighbors. With a little acting, they
could easily pass as Muslim Arabs. The
mosque was a place where Jews, and
resistance fighters could rest, bathe, eat, and
find a temporary sanctuary from the Nazis.
The historical records are sketchy, but one
unconfirmed account suggests the mosque
may have sheltered as many as 1,700 people,
mostly Jews, from arrest during the war years.
Most historians believe the mosque may have
helped a total of around 100 Jews.
The story is the subject of the children’s book
The Grand Mosque of Paris : A Story of How
Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust by
Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland
DeSaix and the 2011 French film Les Hommes
Libres (“Free Men”).

5 Corrie Ten Boom:

Corrine “Corrie” ten Boom was a Dutch woman
who is honored by the Yad Vashem
Remembrance Authority as one of the
Righteous Among the Nations for her work in
rescuing Jews from the Nazis during World
War II.
Corrie and her family were members of the
Dutch Reformed Church, which taught that the
extermination of the Jews was an injustice to
their fellow human beings and an affront to
God. She took this to heart and worked to help
and protect her Jewish neighbors any way she
could. She worked out of her family home in
Haarlem, the Netherlands, converting it to a
safe house where Jewish refugees could hide
until they could be smuggled out of the
country to safety. She gives a riveting account
of this in her book, The Hiding Place. She
rescued nearly 800 from the Holocaust.
On February 28, 1944, the Gestapo raided the
ten Boom house. They didn’t find any of the
six refugees then hiding there, but they
arrested Corrie, her father, brother, both
sisters, and other family members anyway.
She and her sister Betsy were transferred to
Ravensbrueck concentration camp, where
Betsy died. Her father also died in a different
prison.
Corrie ten Boom was released as the war
came to an end. She returned to her home and
worked for causes of reconciliation and peace
until her death in 1983.

4 Tahrir Square:

In late January 2011, Tahrir Square in Cairo
became an area of intense protest during the
Egyptian Uprising . The revolution, which
ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak from power,
was remarkable for its lack of violence. It also
produced striking images of Egypt’s Muslims
and Coptic Christians working together to
create a better future for their country.
The Copts are a Christian sect which has been
in Egypt since ancient times. For most of their
history, the relationship has been fairly good,
but there have been tensions in modern times.
Both the Mubarak government and the Muslim
Brotherhood have been accused of stoking
anti-Coptic sentiment in Egypt for their own
ends.
But in the demonstrations in Tahrir Square,
there was a remarkable degree of cooperation
and goodwill between the two faiths as
Muslims and Christians stood together to
demand a better Egypt. The most dramatic
evidence of this came on Friday, February 4,
which protesters referred to as the Day of
Departure. When Muslims spread their mats
for midday prayer, Christian protesters joined
hands to form a protective circle around them.
Christians and Muslims came together to
protest the government, with the crescent
embracing the cross becoming a popular
symbol in Tahrir Square.
Events since the uprising have shown that
Egyptian Muslims and Christians have a long
way to go to reach peaceful coexistence, but
Tahrir Square is a reminder that there are
many people of both faiths who long for that
day.

3 The Shomrim:

Since 2008, the Orthodox Jewish community
in Stamford Hill, London (some of whose
members are pictured above), had been
protected by the Shomrim, a Jewish citizen’s
patrol that works with police to report and
prevent crimes. In 2013, the group came to
international prominence when they expanded
their patrols to protect Muslim neighborhoods
as well.
The change came after a spike in anti-Muslim
violence following the 2013 murder of soldier
Lee Rigby by Muslim extremists. The violence
included the fire-bombing of several mosques.
Concerned about the ability of police to
safeguard Muslims, local councillors from
Hackney, North London, approached the
Shomrim, who were well-organized and located
close to the Muslim areas.
They were happy to help. As Shomrim member
Shulem Stern told the AFP, “The local Muslims
and local Jewish people do so much business
together. In religious aspects as well there are
loads of similarities. Also, because we’re
visible and suffered a long history of hate
crime, we’re very alert to anything unusual.”
When the Shomrim—who take their name from
a Yiddish word for “guardians”—first
organized, there was a fear of vigilantism, but
they have proven to be valuable allies to the
police, acting as their eyes and ears. Wearing
stab-proof vests with the word SHOMRIM
emblazoned on them over their traditional
Orthodox clothing, they have become a
welcome presence and a symbol of hope to
Londoners of all faiths.

2 The Oslo Synagogue:

In February 2015, over 1,000 Norwegian
Muslims assembled at the only functioning
Oslo synagogue, shown above. They held
hands to form a protective line around the
building and chanted, “No to anti-Semitism.
No to Islamophobia.”
The demonstration was a symbolic show of
support and peaceful coexistence. It came one
week after a shooting at an event promoting
free speech in a Copenhagen synagogue.
Danish-born Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein,
the son of Palestinian immigrants, killed two
people, apparently as a hate crime, but Oslo
Muslims wanted the nation to know the
troubled young man was not reflective of their
community.
“Humanity is one and we are here to
demonstrate that,” organizer Zeeshan
Abdullah said at the event. “There are many
more peacemongers than warmongers. There’s
still hope for humanity, for peace and love,
across religious differences and backgrounds.”

1 Christians And Muslims In Cameroon:


Cameroon is a central African nation where
Christianity and Islam have lived side by side
in relative harmony for generations. Now,
members of both faiths are joining forces
against the radical group Boko Haram , which
wants to establish an extremist Islamic state
in the region.
Since Boko Haram has attacked both churches
and mosques, the people of Cameroon have
come up with a unique strategy. When
Christians are at worship, Muslims stand
guard over their churches. When Muslims are
at prayer, Christians protect their mosques,
like the Lamido Grand Mosque pictured above.
It’s a new tactic, but the good relationship
between the faiths goes back a long way in
the country. Joseph Klofou of the Protestant
Church of Cameroon put it this way: “I feel
frustrated seeing my brothers and sisters
dying. I must act while praying to God to send
his angels and warriors to fight Boko Haram
because he is the merciful God of armies.”
Djafarou Alamine of the central mosques
expressed a similar sentiment: “I am out to
fight because Boko Haram is a group of bad
people. Islam condemns all that they have
been doing to both Christians and Muslims
who are all God’s creatures even though they
have religious differences.”
These religious leaders and the people they
serve have chosen to take a brave stand for
each other and against violent extremism.

Source: listverse

Good one

We may find it hard to reconcile our differences, but we should at least tolerate one another.

Reading the article makes me realize there is still hope for mankind. Don't you think so, Lalasticlala,