Vicar gives classes in Christianity at Islamic school

Bernhard Schünemann, priest in charge of Littlemore, has been invited by the Islamic Iqra school to give lessons in Christianity to its students. Headteacher Mrs Sayeed says the school took the unusual step of inviting a priest in to allow the girls to understand more about other faiths. She says: 'The girls found it really interesting and it helped them understand more about Christianity, and Anglicanism.' Below, Bernhard writes of the fascinating insights he gained during his period teaching at the school.  

To my surprise and delight I found myself invited to teach some RE classes in the Iqra Muslim School. This school has recently started up as a result of the closure of Milham Ford School for girls. The head teacher of this new Muslim school had in fact been a senior teacher at Milham Ford. The girls are taught a normal curriculum plus quite a lot of Arabic and the Koran. They have a small prayer-room in the school where regular prayers are held. The 50 or so students come from all over Oxford and many different ethnic backgrounds. Some of the girls I recognised as previously having been in my Church of England School in Littlemore. And what was even more striking was that there were some, quite outspoken about their Muslim faith, who had converted to Islam from a previously church-going Christian background. My brief was to teach Christianity.

Bernhard with (left) Dr Hojjat Ramzy, the chairman of Iqra School and one of the representatives of Muslim community in Oxfordshire and Imam Ataullah Kahn, the Islamic Adviser of Iqra School

It was on Wednesday in Holy Week that I taught my first lesson there: a presentation of the Christian faith followed by questions. I began by saying that it was likely that they already knew more about Christianity than I did about Islam, and I was right. They were extremely well informed about what Christians believed and especially they knew much about Jesus, whom they are taught to respect very deeply. It was a lively lesson covering Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ, the Bible as Œthe word¹ of God ('Iqra' is the Arabic for 'word'), Christian life-styles, Christian worship and sacraments, differences in denominations and what it feels like for a Christian to live in our contemporary society. I have never before spoken to a group of 13 and 14 year olds who were so interested and even passionate to engage with this kind of content!

For me the most interesting part was the discussion that followed. The girls were eager to understand what ‘evangelical’ meant, and I think it must have been in this context that they asked what I thought of Christians actively targeting Muslims for conversion. I explained that Christianity, perhaps like Islam, was a missionary faith, and that mission involved an eagerness to share a love for Christ with everybody.  But that personally I felt more urgency to evangelise those who have no relationship with God rather than those who already know God in another way, and I suggested that the majority of Christians in Oxford probably felt the same way.  

All the girls at the school wear a veil, which makes them look very much like Christian nuns, of whom we have quite a number in East Oxford.  They asked me why it was that when westerners saw a veiled nun they appear to think to themselves ‘what a holy and self-sacrificing woman’ but when they see a veiled Muslim woman they think to themselves ‘Oh, look, how the Muslims oppress their womenfolk’.  

Right at the end of my first 90 minute session at the school one girl stood up and asked ‘what would you say - in one sentence - the purpose of Christianity was?’  As this session was held on Wednesday in Holy Week I felt it was worth asking this of our own congregation.  In Littlemore we have a long liturgy of Maundy Thursday, starting with a meal and footwashing in some room or hall in the parish which is generally only found booked a few days in advance.  The meal, though framed by Bible readings, is generally a rather sociable occasion.  I asked the fifty or so participants to discuss exactly this question over their meals.  After all Jesus died for it: what is at the heart of our faith, what is the purpose that Jesus died for?  

Bernhard Schünemann is Vicar of Littlemore

photos Frank Blackwell