Chawkat Moucarry

I was born in Aleppo (Syria) into a Christian home, of the Greek-Catholic (Melkite) rite. I did my secondary education at a high school named after an illustrious Abbasid caliph: al-Ma’moun (786-833) who ruled for the last twenty years of his life. It was in this high school that I first learned to enter into dialogue with my Muslim friends on faith issues.

At the age of eighteen I went to France where I studied Christian theology (master’s degree) and Islamic studies (doctorate) at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section Sciences Religieuses (Paris-Sorbonne).

I worked for twelve years within the Groupes Bibliques Universitaire de France (1980-1992), known as InterVarsity in the US and UCCF in the UK. It is in this context that I held my first public dialogues with Muslim speakers. My first two books, ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AT THE CROSSROADS and AN ARAB CHRISTIAN FACING ISLAM are the fruit of these meetings.

I then moved to the UK where I taught Islamic studies for twelve years (1994-2006) at All Nations Christian College. During this period, I wrote two books, FAITH TO FAITH. Islam and Christianity in Dialogue, TWO PRAYERS FOR TODAY. The Lord’s Prayer and the Fatiha and THE SEARCH FOR FORGIVENESS. Pardon and Punishment in Islam and Christianity. This last book is based on my PhD in Islamic studies (thesis defended in 1994). These books were written and published first in English before they came out in French.

Then I worked in a large Christian NGO, World Vision International (2006-2016) as director of interfaith relations. WVI is a development, relief and advocacy organization. I had the joy of visiting some fifty countries in the course of my work. I was most happy in my work when I was working together with Muslim communities as well as and with Muslim employees and religious leaders in some twenty Muslim-majority countries,

In 2017 I returned (with my wife) to France to live in the same house where we lived (with our four children) before our departure for England. I have the privilege of living in the Paris region, an extremely rich region in terms of culture, religion, art, nature, etc.

I have spent the last six months writing (and translating to English) a new book called ISLAM ON TRIAL. Islamism, Globalization, Christianity. The sub-title sums up the top three challenges Muslims are facing nowadays in my view. The book will be published in French and English within a year or so.