Popular accounts of present-day Pakistan often present Muslims there as uniformly intractable and intolerant, and Muslim-Christian relationships as uniformly hostile. All is seen through the lens of the Taliban.
This is a distortion. The history of Jesuit involvement in Pakistan suggests a more complex picture, reflecting the diversity among Muslims there.
Jesuit involvement in the region goes back to the 16th century when the Mughal Emperor Akbar invited Jesuits to engage in religious debates. This set the tone for later engagement.
In 1961, a Swiss Jesuit, Fr Robert Butler, came to Lahore where he gathered important books on Islam written in the Islamic languages (Arabic, Persian and Urdu) as well as books and international journals on Islam and Christianity written in various European languages. The library in Lahore became a basis for scholarly contacts between Fr Butler and various Muslim intellectuals throughout the following decades.
After Fr Butler left there was less opportunity for scholarly dialogue with Muslims. A new approach had to be found. It lay in the development of personal relationships, which is the foundation of all dialogue.
The Jesuits opened two schools for the Urdu and Punjabi-speaking people of Lahore. About 40 per cent of the children who attend these schools are from Muslim families. Some of the teachers are also Muslims.
By interacting on a daily basis, Christians and Muslims, whether they are teachers or students, are learning how to respect and care for one another. The everyday contact that students enjoyed as Christian and Muslim playing and studying together, and the respectful interaction of their Christian and Muslim teachers forms a good basis for subsequent relationships. The history of Islam in Pakistan supports this open and tolerant attitude.
The Muslims of Pakistan today are by nature moderate and respectful of varieties in religious interpretation and practice because they have adopted the form of Islam that the holy men and women (Sufis) had preached to them many centuries ago.
These wandering Sufis had taught them the spiritual depth of the Islamic faith and had provided them with a living example of the beauty and simplicity of their faith. Consequently, the great majority of contemporary Muslims in Pakistan reject the interpretation of Islam that the Taliban are trying to impose upon them.
One can only understand the rise of the Taliban, however, if one remembers the history of their beginnings as a wave of opposition against foreign invaders from Russia several decades ago. Today, the Taliban are reacting to the lawlessness and corruption that has prevailed in Afghanistan ever since the defeat of the Russians.
They are resorting to their own extreme interpretation of Islam in the hope of restoring the rule of law in Afghanistan as well as in the northern areas of Pakistan.
The Taliban are receiving continued support from some sectors of society in Afghanistan and even from some individuals in Pakistan because these people are losing confidence in the ability of the civil government to create a safe and secure environment for them based on the implementation of the law.
With nowhere to turn except to the Taliban for help, more and more people are turning their attention to Shari'ah law, in the hope that its harsh punishments will deter the lawbreakers and stem corruption in society.
The efforts of foreign powers to subdue or even to exterminate the Taliban by sending more troops into Afghanistan are only encouraging more young volunteers across the border in Pakistan to take up arms and to join the struggle of their besieged brothers in Afghanistan. Military intervention from outside the country is alienating the local people from the efforts of these foreign troops to bring peace and security to their society.
Military action in Afghanistan and in the northern areas of Pakistan should be replaced by political dialogue between the various parties in the dispute.
In the present context, there is no question of religious dialogue with the Taliban about different interpretations of Islam. The extreme form of Islam we are witnessing in Afghanistan and in Pakistan is a response to political and social realities. A political dialogue will make a difference to the present conflict provided it takes account of the social and political context in which the Taliban are gaining popularity and growing in strength.
All forms of dialogue between Muslims and Christians, including theological exchange, depend on the trust and friendship established by regular meetings and conversations between Christians and Muslims. More trust could develop between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan in these difficult times if they could find ways of moving out of the relative isolation of their schools and housing estates to build more relationships of trust and friendship.
Both Christians and Muslims in Pakistan need to move beyond the assumptions and stereotypes that continue to dominate the thinking of many people on both sides of the religious divide. If Christians, for instance, were more informed about the variety of ways that their Muslim brothers and sisters understood Islam, they would be less inclined to make sweeping statements about the Muslims living all around them.
Similarly, if Muslims in Pakistan could appreciate that Western nations act more frequently out of national and political interests, rather than out of Christian convictions, they would be less inclined to condemn their Christian co-citizens, who have no knowledge of the political maneuvers of Western (so-called Christian) governments. Forums of communication in Pakistan would provide an opportunity to correct misunderstandings of this kind.
Christians and Muslims, who tend to live in separate enclaves and compounds, need to take an initiative by attending each other's feasts and functions. Without a basis of trust and friendship, there will be little scope for deepening communication through exchanges of a more intellectual or spiritual kind.
Society in Pakistan will benefit from courageous citizens who are willing to overcome apathy and fear without waiting for the initiative to come from the other side.
Herman Roborgh SJ lived in Pakistan for eight years before going to India where he completed a PhD in Islamic Studies at Aligarh Muslim University. He currently resides in Australia.