Mapping Eastleigh for Christian-Muslim Relations

Introduction: Mapping this Book

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INTRODUCTION Mapping this Book Willem Jansen The book in your hands is the first publication of the Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations in Eastleigh (CCMRE). This Centre was established in 2010 by St. Paul’s University (SPU), in Limuru, Kenya, as one of the University’s practical programmes, in the area of ChristianMuslim relations. The CCMRE was established as a result of the joint efforts of Joseph Wandera and the present writer, and is co-managed by them on behalf of St. Paul’s University. Since 2004, St. Paul’s University in cooperation with churches and church-related organizations in Africa, Europe and the USA, and the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA), has been running a Master’s Programme in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (ICMR). The ICMR-programme has attracted students, from many sub-Saharan countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, the Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, the number of students has remained low due to, - amongst other reasons - the lack of a practical dimension in the largely academic approach.
While the ICMR programme upholds its mission of academic excellence, the CCMRE project seeks to supplement the theoretical study with a more practical approach of interreligious dialogue and the reflection on diapraxis1 , or dialogue in practice. The CCMRE, with its physical location on Eighth Street, Eastleigh, in Nairobi, Kenya, aims at enabling ICMR students to become both scholars and practitioners. By means of exposure programmes conducted at the ICMR, students and scholars have opportunities to supplement their theoretical knowledge with practical skills that can be used in their respective congregations, parishes, mosque-related organizations, and in the wider society.
The CCMRE vision is: (1) To expand the cooperation and information-exchange between adult educators and academics, belonging to different faiths, by participating in different projects in sub-Saharan Africa; and (2) To identify, test and evaluate methodological approaches and concepts of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, in order to develop these




























































@ The term “diapraxis” denotes dialogue within an action-reflection praxis context. Thus dialogue between Christians and Muslims is not merely a verbal mihadhara or discursive debate. It is actually an existential participation in real life. Such an approach establishes the Eastleigh mapping exercise within the basic theoretical framework.
 
 

   
  

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further by accommodating the learning needs of Christian and Muslim individuals in the Kenyan context of Eastleigh. Beyond the individual learning processes, group-learning techniques are applied at the Centre. The CCMRE project has, therefore, formulated the following objectives:  To achieve a better understanding of dialogue between Christians and Muslims and its necessary socio-political conditions,  To recognize and overcome stereotypes,  To encourage all parties (Christians, Muslims, non- and other-believers) to take part in the project,  To demonstrate that, in spite of historical, cultural and political diversity, scholars, adult educators, students and guests of the Centre can learn from each other in the processes of the CCMRE activities; and,  To facilitate, organise and publish academic research in the field of intercultural and interreligious studies, e.g. seminars, and workshops that are made public by academic articles, books, and audio-video materials. During the first two years of the CCMRE project, the team has realised these objectives through academic and practical programmes, such as exposure tours in Eastleigh for students and scholars at all levels; critical evaluation of good practices in Christian-Muslim relations elsewhere in Africa; and a mapping project. The report of the mapping project that took place between November 2012 and February 2013, has been presented by C.B. Peter in Chapter Six of this book. It is introduced and followed by five chapters and appendices, all related to the “mapped” phenomena of the intriguing estate of Eastleigh, Nairobi. The mapping project of the CCMRE, which brought together students and staff from various religious and cultural backgrounds, shows ChristianMuslim relations in action. That is exactly what St. Paul’s University’s Centre for ChristianMuslim Relations in Eastleigh (CCMRE) stands for: academic and practical programmes, that attempt to build bridges between faith communities. Muslims and Christians are actually working together through diapraxis, or dialogue in practice, rather than having interreligious discursive dialogue by words alone. Mapping Eastleigh “Mapping” is a rather new development within theology, taking seriously insights from postmodern geography and spatiality theories. This method of mapping, in the sense of ‘observing a place in order to gain existential knowledge about it’, has recently become a tool of theological reflection. St. Paul’s University senior lecturer Peter’s Ph.D...