In an article published recently in Providence, Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow with the Religious Freedom Institute, writes:

While many Americans still classify polities in terms of a simplistic liberal or non-liberal binary, other democratic forces in the world are seeking to reach agreement, accommodation, and cooperation across differing beliefs.

Marshall explains that this pursuit of “agreement, accommodation, and cooperation” is occurring between Christian and Muslim political parties, from Europe to Southeast Asia. One example he gives is the recent addition of the National Awakening Party (PKB) — a nationalist Muslim party in Indonesia — as a full member of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI). CDI was formerly the Christian Democrat International and is “the largest grouping of political parties in the world, having 94 member parties from 73 countries.” Marshall writes:

While the [CDI] was originally formed to study and enact Christian principles in politics, it attracted support from groups that were not Christian, so rechristened itself as “centrist.” The vast majority of its members are still in the Christian Democrat camp, but it now has member parties from Algeria, Cambodia, Morocco, Senegal, and other countries.

Within and beyond the context of CDI, Marshall sees some hopeful signs in recent engagements between Muslim and Christian political leaders who do not shy away from their religious identity and beliefs but rather draw upon them as foundational for their party platforms and governing principles.

Read the full article: New Christian-Muslim Political Alliances?