Making Waves by Judy Clemens
Author:Judy Clemens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MennoMedia
Published: 2020-10-08T00:00:00+00:00
Elisante Daniel Lulu
Social media peacemaker
Elisante Daniel Lulu is a Christian from Tanzania, a country in eastern Africa. Christians make up about 61 percent of the countryâs population. Muslims are the next largest religious group, with about 35 percent of the people. Sometimes itâs hard for people from these different beliefs to get along. In July 2015, relationships between the two religions were tense.
âSome Christian churches suffered attacks,â Elisante says, âespecially in Zanzibar, an island off Tanzaniaâs coast. In Zanzibar the population is 90 percent Muslim. That area tended to be more violent against Christians, more challenging. And sometimes there was violence even in the northern part, in Mwanza. In these instances, someone who went to church was killed, or the church and everything in it was burned by unknown people. But we usually knew that it was a group of people with different religious beliefs.â
Elisante wanted to stop this violence by talking with people, so that they could see things from othersâ points of view. He interacted a lot on social media. He also met with people in person to talk. He went to groups that were both Muslim and Christian, where they discussed their faith together. Sometimes it was challenging to talk with people who thought differently. People on the other side of conversations often got angry and said things that were unkind. Elisante especially found this when he was involved in social media discussions.
âWhen the Muslims there would use violent words,â he says, âsometimes the Christians became defensive. I saw that some Christians could also be violent, using the same kind of language. So the arguments would just escalate. But I soon realized that nonviolent words would cool down the situation. Whenever the other side would use violent and aggressive language, I would use very polite words. Many times I would say, âI really love what you said and I understand what you say. And I really love you.â I would say this even though they were very angry towards the Christians.â
Elisante found that responding to anger and hatred with kindness could stop violent language in its tracks. Now he holds workshops and teaches people how to create a safer space for talking together. He finds that speaking with love and understanding can calm people down quickly, whether on social media or in person.
Elisante knows there is more than one side to every story. He wants Christians to see that everything is not the fault of the Muslims. âI do not blame the Islamic religion,â Elisante says, âbecause we have many, many Islamic friends who are very helpful to us. We work together, we eat together. We can eat from the same plate or drink from the same cup. We share a lot of things. But we do have a lot of differences. Even among Christians this is true. Some are very conservative, some are open-minded. So whenever we have misunderstandings, we must come and sit and talk together. We may have differences, but our differences become less and less as we talk.
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