Adult religious morality development from the Quranic perspective: Strategies to overcome Islamophobia and Christianophobia

Qomaruzzaman (2021:1) stated that, in the history of Islam, the teaching of violence in the name of religion was not found. On the contrary, Prophet Muhammad as an ideal model tended to teach about the character of patience, compassion, forgiveness and respect for humanity. Therefore, when there is an understanding among Muslims that the Prophet taught violence and radicalism, that understanding must be reconsidered. In the Indonesian context, one of the efforts attempted to combat radicalism in the education world is to conduct Living Values Education (LVE), as explained in Syamsul Arfin’s paper (2016:94). In establishing social interactions with those around us, this paper highlights LVE in several points: peace, respect, love, cooperation, honesty, humility, tolerance, simplicity, happiness, responsibility, freedom and unity. This article unveils the Qur’an’s perspectives on the erosion of phobia of other religions because of the negative stereotypes attached to Islam and Christianity to create greater peace in religious life globally. Furthermore, the Qur’an’s perspective on adult religious morality development is revealed by the at-tafsir al-maudhu’i method ( a thematic interpretation ). The study shows that adult religious morality development should integrate (1) religious morality (appreciation for faith differences), (2) national morality (love for the state and motherland) and (3) social morality (social integration) to build individual religious maturity to overcome Islamophobia and Christianophobia. Religious maturity renders humbleness, moral consistency, comprehensiveness and heuristic in every individual character. The results of this research are in accordance with Wallport’s opinion on religious maturity. Contribution: The main contribution of this study is to reveal the insights of the al-Qur’an regarding the solution to the problems of Islamophobia and Christonophobia caused by the stereotypes of Islam and Christianity. In addition to interpreting verses, this study is equipped with psychological studies in building everyone’s religious maturity so that they can think and act wisely in respecting differences in beliefs. This study is expected to minimise the problems of Islamophobia and Christianophobia from inside and outside the adherents of these religions.


Introduction
Islamophobia and Christianophobia spring from various sources, one of which is the negative stereotypes associated with each religion. For instance, since the September 11 incident, the negative Western perception of Islam has ever been escalating. Islam is often identified as a religion that teaches violence and radicalism (Abbas 2019:3), and terrorism (Tartaglia, Bergagna & Elisa 2019:15) goes into backwardness and discredits females. Meanwhile, Christianity from the perspective of the Muslim community is linked to negative stereotypes that include fanatism and championship of adult violent acts (al-Qurtubi 2020). Nevertheless, the emergence of Christianophobia has not been found in the literature. Still, this term began to appear in the discussion of religious leaders to build the community togetherness, as stated by Pastor Khaled Akasheh, who represented Pope Benedict XVI at the International Conference of Muslim Scholars (ICIS) at Hotel Borobudur, Jakarta, Indonesia, 20 June 2006 (Antara 2006). Bambang Qomaruzzaman (2021:1) stated that, in the history of Islam, the teaching of violence in the name of religion was not found. On the contrary, Prophet Muhammad as an ideal model tended to teach about the character of patience, compassion, forgiveness and respect for humanity. Therefore, when there is an understanding among Muslims that the Prophet taught violence and radicalism, that understanding must be reconsidered.
In the Indonesian context, one of the efforts attempted to combat radicalism in the education world is to conduct Living Values Education (LVE), as explained in Syamsul Arfin's paper (2016:94). In establishing social interactions with those around us, this paper highlights LVE in several points: peace, respect, love, cooperation, honesty, humility, tolerance, simplicity, happiness, responsibility, freedom and unity. This article unveils the Qur'an's perspectives on the erosion of phobia of other religions because of the negative stereotypes attached to Islam and Christianity to create greater peace in religious life globally. Furthermore, the Qur'an's perspective on adult religious morality development is revealed by the at-tafsir al-maudhu'i method (a thematic interpretation). The study shows that adult religious morality development should integrate (1) religious morality (appreciation for faith differences), (2) national morality (love for the state and motherland) and (3) social morality (social integration) to build individual religious maturity to overcome Islamophobia and Christianophobia. Religious maturity renders humbleness, moral consistency, comprehensiveness and heuristic in every individual character. The results of this research are in accordance with Wallport's opinion on religious maturity.  (Ibda 2018:121-146).
However, in the Indonesian context, radicalistic teaching development on social media receives objections from two major Indonesian religious organisations: Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), all of which reject radical ideology on the grounds of religion and call for studentfriendly instructional methods and materials as were offered by Ibnu Miskawayh and Naquib al-Attas (Aly 2020:177).
The talk of Islamophobia mitigation was once raised by Abdul Aziz, who suggested the reinterpretation of verses that are understood in a limited, highly textual way. The Qur'an and Hadith, in essence, emphasise the teachings of love and moderation in religious life. Hence, all manners of provocative actions and terrorism that result in chaos, fear and death are unquestionably at variance with the Qur'an (Aziz 2016:78-80).
In the context of Nigeria, according to Onyinyechi, the origin of Islamophobia in several western countries is related to violence and terrorism committed by people who claim to be Muslims. When these incidents are juxtaposed with the situation in Nigeria and the counter-violence against Muslims in some places, it becomes striking that Islamophobia is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode in Nigeria. However, it has been determined that those who perpetrate this violence seriously damage the reputation of Islam, which is essentially a religion of peace and is, in fact, a blasphemy against Islam. Therefore, to prevent this impending psychological complex, it is necessary to intensify the vocal condemnation of terrorism by non-Islamic and Islamic leaders, guarantees of good governance, precise and straightforward hermeneutics of Islamic scriptures, intra-and interfaith dialogue, and collaboration in the fight against terrorism and violence in the name of religion as a panacea for this so-called Islamophobia epidemic (Wariboko 2015:42).
In addition to the opinion of previous researchers, in this article, the author tries to add a formula to overcome the problem of Islamophobia and Christianophobia through 'religious morality development' to reconsider religious stereotypes as mentioned above. Therefore, it is necessary to initiate how the concept of adult religious morality is developed to overcome the problems of Islamophobia and Christianophobia.
This article aims to share a way to eradicate Islamophobia and Christianophobia by revealing the Quran's perspectives on religious morality development to encourage individuals to think critically and wisely about the negative stereotypes of a religion that lead to a phobia of the concerned religion.
The interpretation method chosen in this research is the 'Maudu'i interpretation method' (thematic method). This method was chosen because it can be used as a more comprehensive exploration of the concept of adult religious morality in the Qur'an. The procedure for interpreting the Qur'an with thematic methods uses the following procedure: (1) determine the discussion of al-Qur'an, which will be studied thematically; (2) track and collect verses according to the topics raised; (3) arrange the verses chronologically (because of the descending), prioritise the makiyah verses from madaniyah and are accompanied by knowledge about the background of the verses; (4) know the correlation [munāsabah] of these verses; and (5) arrange discussion themes in a systematic manner (Al-Farmawī n.d.:42-44).

Adult religious morality development
The word moral arises from the Latin word mores, which means procedure, habit, behaviour, and custom in life. Kohlberg defines morality as a society-made guide of right or wrong to one's behaviours. It is a pattern of behaviours, principles, concepts and rules an individual or group of individuals adopt in relation to what is good and what is bad. It is basically seen as a resolution between self and collective interest, between rights and obligations. In other words, it is identified as a resolution between the interest of oneself and that of the environment resulting from the evaluation of the two (Kohlberg 1981:5). Stark and Glock (1970) pointed out five dimensions of religiosity: (1) the ideological dimension, which relates to the extent to which one believes the truth of his or her religious teaching (religious belief); (2) the ritualistic dimension, which refers to the extent to which one is obedient in performing ritual obligations imposed by one's religion (religious practice); (3) the experiential dimension, which refers to the extent to which one feels and experiences religious feelings or experiences (religious feeling); (4) the intellectual dimension, which refers to the extent of one's knowledge and understanding of the teaching of the religion they adhere to (religious knowledge); and (5) the consequential dimension, which refers to the aspect of measuring the extent to which one's behaviour is motivated http://www.hts.org.za Open Access by their religious teaching in social life (religious effect) (Hood 1996:23).
It is also necessary to map what is meant by adults. According to Hurlock (1972), an adult is an individual who is ready to accept a position in society along with other adults aged 35 years and above. This is a phase, 'Conjunctive Faith', during which all efforts made under conscience and rational control in the previous stage are revisited (Aziz 2016:88).

De-Islamophobia and de-Christianophobia for adults through Qu'ran-based religious morality development
Islamophobia and Christianophobia are terms of contradiction. This study is tremendously sensitive as it bears an association with one's faith, but it becomes of interest for the dimensions of fanatism and textual, narrow understanding contained therein. Such a limited understanding makes one inclined to be easy to judge as wrong from another person with a different view than his or hers.
It is interesting to read the work of cultural anthropologist and head of Scientific Research in Social Sciences at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, Sumanto al-Qurtubi. Sumanto claims Islamophobia and Christianophobia as psychological pathology that requires special expert treatments (al-Qurtubi 2020). According to him, Islamophobia refers to excessive fear of or anxiety about Islam and Muslims. Meanwhile, Christianophobia is an overdose of hostility towards the Christian and excessive fear of the development of Christianity. The two are both psychological pathology that arises from the view of an antipathic attitude towards Islam and Christianity.
The term phobia is a part of the terminology in psychology which within the terms Islamophobia and Christianophobia experiences an extension in its meaning as a result of the religious dimension involved. But unfortunately, the study of religious psychology has yet to pay much attention to this phobia of other religions. Hence, the solutions from the psychological perspective have yet to be found as comprehensive. This is especially problematic since religiophobia is different from the phobia of material objects, such as the phobia of animals and food, among others.
In the case of phobia of a material object, the psychologist would administer therapy, for example, by having the patient recognise the material concerned as not harmful for them under a comfortable situation. Rational and emotional approaches are adopted in this method. With an in-depth understanding of the object that triggers the phobia and the use of a secure condition, irrational fear can be gradually subdued. Eventually, the phobia can be eliminated. However, the phobia of other religions poses a challenge to psychologists and religious scholars.

Definitions of Islamophobia and Christianophobia
The terms Islamophobia and Christianophobia have been a constant object of debate. They stir controversy by touching on something compassionate -the irrational fear of other religions (Rayyan 2013:1).
Etymologically, the word Islamophobia is formed from Islam and -phobia, a Greek suffix used in English to form 'nouns with the sense of "fear of --" and "aversion to --" (Oxford English Dictionary). Terminologically, Islamophobia is an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against Islam or people who practise Islam (Oxford English Dictionary). Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness (Thompson 1992 [I]slamophobia is a contrived fear or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure. It is directed at a perceived or real Muslim threat by maintaining and extending existing disparities in economic, political, social, and cultural relations while rationalizing the necessity to deploy violence to achieve 'civilizational rehab' of the target communities (Muslim or otherwise). Islamophobia reintroduces and reaffirms a global racial structure through which resource distribution disparities are maintained and extended. (Bazian 2017:n.p.) The author is more inclined towards this definition because this definition is more comprehensive in explaining the meaning and the factors that cause this term to appear.
Meanwhile, Christianophobia is an irrational animosity towards or hatred of Christian or Christianity in general. It is also used to describe the phenomenon of intolerance and discrimination against Christians (Macmillan Dictionary 2010).

So Many Christians, So Few Lions by George Yancey and David
A. Williamson (2014) is a provocative look at anti-Christian sentiments in America. Through this book that draws on both quantitative and qualitative research, the authors show that even though (or perhaps because) Christianity is the dominant religion in the United States of America, bias against Christians exists -particularly against conservative Christians -and that this bias is worth understanding. The authors argue that understanding anti-Christian bias is important for understanding some social dynamics in America, and they offer practical suggestions to help reduce religious intolerance of all kinds (Yancey & Williamson 2014).

Religious morality development in the Qur'an
In Interestingly, in this study, the author has found that religious morality in the Qur'an in handling Islamophobia can be traced to integrating three kinds of morality -religious morality, national morality and social morality -as explained in Table 1. The word 'asā ‫)عسى(‬ is used to illustrate a hope for future events. It is impossible to address the word to Allah as everything is known to him. Thus, the word 'asā should be addressed to the interlocutor, who is encouraged to adopt a hopeful, optimistic attitude. Ulema maintains that all words in the al-Qur'an are certain in meaning.

Religious morality in relation to respect for differences in religions
As stated by Muhammad Quraish Shihab, an interpreter of the al-Qur'an from Indonesia, what was promised was proven shortly after the revelation of this āyah. When the Prophet made a return to Mecca, many of Meccan folks embraced Islam. It was proven that relationships filled with affection were truly established between the believers and former polytheists. In his book al-Lawāmi' A ray of light, al-Rāzī wrote that Abu Sofyan, one of the polytheists most hostile to Islam, eventually adopted Islam. Even after the passing of the Prophet, he fought against those who renounced their Islam. That is what al-Rāzī referred to The phrase between you and those you hold as enemies precedes the word mawaddah, an Arabic word for 'affection', and stresses the development of affection between two people or more. This is so because they had experienced first-hand how bitter it was to have a tie with a kinsfolk severed.
The word mawaddah ‫)مودة(‬ refers to affection, which has been proven to have a positive impact on behaviour. It is derived from the word wuddun, which means 'pure and totality'. A person with mawaddah has nothing in his or her heart but love in its wholeness for a person he or she loves, disregard for blameworthy flaws, and unceasing affection, however the condition is.
The expression verse lam yuqātilūkum, which means fight not against you, is in the mudhāri' or present form. This is to be understood as 'they are factually fighting against you'. Meanwhile, the word fī, which means in, suggests that at the time of this communication, it is as if the interlocutor is in the state of being inside a medium and none is in the state of being on the outside. Fī al-dīn, which means in religion, excludes wars incited by worldly gaps which bear no relation to religion.
Asma bint. Abu Bakar al-Shiddiq reported her mother (a disbeliever back then) as paying her a visit, so she met with the Prophet and asked, 'May I have a relationship with my mother'? The Prophet answered, 'Yes! Have a good relationship with her' (Bukhari and Muslim). Imam Ahmad narrated through Abdullah Ibn Zubair that Asma's mother, Qutailah, paid Asma a visit and presented her with gifts, but Asma was hesitant to accept them and accept her mother. Asma asked her sister 'Aisyah, and shortly after, the ayah above was revealed. The Prophet ordered Asma to welcome her mother and accept her gifts (Isma>' i>l 1998:1. Hadith number:2620. The word tabarrūhum is derived from the word birr, which means profuse righteousness. One of Allah's names is al-Bar, attributed to him for his profuseness in righteousness. The plains on earth are named barr for their vastness. The use of this word in the ayah above represents a permit to conduct all sorts of righteousness for non-Muslims, provided that doing so does not bring any negative impact on the Muslims. The word tuqsiṭū is derived from the word qisth, which means just. Al-Biqā'i maintains that the use of the word ilaihim and the word tuqsiṭū signals that this order should be relayed to them. Thus, in al-Biqā'i's opinion, the attitude of enjoined (being just) constitutes a part of establishing the relationship and exerts no negative influence on the Muslim ummah.
Sayyid Qutub (1998:3546-3547) interpreted the āyah above as suggesting that Islam is a religion of peace and love. Islam is a system aimed at putting the entire universe under its shade of peace and love. All humankind is assembled under God's banner as brothers and sisters who recognise and love each other. Nobody is to stand in the way except the aggressing enemies of Allah and religion. But if they adopt a peaceful attitude, then Islam has no intention to go to war against them or attempt to do so. Even if in hostility, Islam preserves harmony factors in relationships, namely, fair behaviour and treatment, while looking forward to the moment when the oppositions accept the righteousness introduced and ultimately join the ummah (Shihab 2005:166-70).
The explanation above suggests that this āyah teaches Muslims to prioritise the concept of mawaddah in social interactions. This āyah also determines that war is only allowed as long as it is related to religious affairs and for selfdefence in the event of being exiled from one's own home or when enemies join forces to evict one from his or her own home. These three conditions justify Muslims' attempt to defend themselves rather than instigate a war. Finally, this ayah sets the foundation for establishing harmonious relationships between human beings of different faiths within family or society and for developing al-sakīnah alijtimā'iyyah/social tranquillity (Febriani, Prasojo & Badru Tamam 2020:4-10).

Religious morality in relation to the love for the state and motherland
As mentioned before, religious morality related to the love for the state and motherland is that Allah told us to obey the commandments of his, his Messenger and 'Ūlī al-amr'.
Muslim scholars had different interpretations of the word ūlī al-amr mentioned in that verse. From the perspective of linguistics, ūlī is the plural of walī, which means the owners, the ones in charge, and the ones who have the authority. The plural form used indicates that there are many people of this kind. Meanwhile, the word al-amr means command or affair. So, the word ūlī al-amr means people who have the authority to take care of Muslims' affairs. They are reliable people to deal with social problems. Therefore, ūlī al-amr contains several meanings: the government or the authority, the ulama (clerics or religious scholars) or representatives of people of different groups and professions (Febriani 2014:283;Zuhaili n.d.:39-40).
Muslim philosopher al-Farabi stated that to form a perfect state, the state should be based on the basis of faith. With this faith, humans will always appreciate the existence of any kind of creature/species in the universe by establishing justice among society and working to support and complete each other. Al-Farabi says that, with all the things mentioned above, we can form a leading society (excellent society/alijtimā' al-fāḍilah) and move on to creating a perfect country (excellent city/al-Medīna al-faḍīlah) (al-Farabi 1985:39-49).
Al-Farabi also stated that it is crucial to maintain community unity in supporting the state's vision and mission to form an ideal state. Therefore, the participation of every community member is needed without discrimination and regardless of one's social status (al-Farabi 1985:4;Febriani et al. 2020:68-77).
Nevertheless, there is one important point that should be underlined here. As the spearhead of implementing the government policy in every country, consciousness and joint participation in the world community would significantly determine the success in tackling Islamophobia and Christianophobia.

Religious morality in relation to the love for peace and social integration
To establish social integrity, it is necessary to introduce social morality with moral values based on three fundamental principles: liberty, equality and reciprocity. Founding one's thoughts and actions on the above-mentioned three principles will forge high moral behaviours towards an excellent personality. High-valued moral behaviours are behaviours that do not harm, hurt, torture, disturb or violate the rights of others. In addition, one should have the behaviour of respecting others' rights based on universal human values (Idi & Sahrodi 2017:1-16).
The three social morality principles can be realised by establishing a moderate society (ummatan wasaṭan). The term ummatan wasaṭan can be found in al-Baqarah: 143. Ibn Kathir interpreted ummatan wasaṭan in this ayah as a just nation. The word awsat means the selected and the best. The Muslim ummah is to be witnesses over humankind, and the Prophet is to be a witness over them. Muslims are the best people because Allah has designated explicitly to them perfected shariah (Islamic law), straight principles and clear madhab (school of thought) in al-Hajj [22]: 78 (Kathīr 1999:417;Mulia 2007Mulia :1035Mulia -1036. The Muslim ummah's position in the middle has a significance that they would not drift into materialism or lose grip on reality into the realm of spirits. Being in the middle ground allows them the integration of mental and physical aspects in all demeanours and deeds. Wasaṭiyat invites all ummah of Islam to interact and be open to all parties (of all religions, cultures and civilisations), for it will not be possible for them to become witnesses or be just close-minded or withdraw from the environment and global development (Shihab 1996:327). People with these characteristics are people who already have religious maturity.
Renowned psychologist Wallport provides characteristics of religious maturity as follows: (1) well-differentiated and self-critical, using reason as an integral factor in religious life to function dynamically in religious activities; (2) using religion as a motivational force -religiously mature, one uses religion as a destination and force. They always seek to tackle every problem to take him further to self-transformation; (3) have moral consistency in concrete everyday behaviours; (4) have comprehensiveness in outlook with tolerance at the core; (5) having an integral outlook -this criterion involves reflection and harmony as well as valuable life; and (6) heuristic in which a religiously matured person will always seek truth and understand their temporary achievements concerning their faith, making him an eternal 'seeker' (Wallport 1950:52-75).
Religious maturity will enable every individual to make a wise judgement of political and economic intrigues in responding to issues of Islamophobia and Christianophobia. The Qur'an highly appreciates human choice in the selection of their religion and teaches integration with every element of a nation for them to live their religious life safely to support the objectives of religious activities: to safeguard religion, soul, mind, progeny and wealth (Al-Syatibi n.d.:4-5). Hence, every thought or action defying the objectives of practising Islam above can be regarded as desertion.
Wrapping up this article, the discussion from the beginning to the end is summarised in Figure 1. Counter-measures that have been made: ReinterpretaƟon of Quranic verses (Aziz 2016), insƟll LVE for students (Arifin 2016), strengthen religious moderaƟon curriculum (Ibda 2018), friendly methods and materials (Aly 2020)

Problem: Islamophobia and ChrisƟanophobia
Quranic soluƟons: Religious morality development, related to: ImplicaƟve funcƟon of the result: Religious maturity: Well-differenƟated and self-criƟcal, moƟvaƟonal force, moral consistency, comprehensiveness, integral, heurisƟc (Wallport 1950) 1. Religious morality 2 . NaƟonal morality 3. Social morality As summed up in Table 1, the discussion explains that Islamophobia and Christianophobia, and even phobia of any other religion existing in the world, are in no way justifiable according to the Qur'an. On the contrary, the spirit of moderation, tolerance, social integration, and cooperation in reinforcing truth and goodness is a universal teaching of the Qur'an and every religion (eds. Rapoport & Alexander 1982).
Every religion teaches its adherents to become a good individual to himself or herself, others, the environment and God. If there ever be a notion that religion teaches radicalism and violence, then such a notion is open to debate.

Conclusion
Islamophobia is an irrational fear of Moslems because of the negative stereotypes caused by acts of violence by a few people, which are then generalised to Muslims in general, and vice versa with Christianophobia. Islamophobia and Christianophobia show one's immature stage of religious understanding. Both are irrational fear of other religions, mainly towing to highly subjective negative stereotypes of such religions.
The factors that cause Islamophobia and Christianophobia include immoral acts such as violence, terrorism and the discrediting of women by a handful of people under the pretext of understanding the scriptures that are still partial. This immoral act is counterproductive to religious teachings, which emphasise commendable morals to every adherent; even in Islam, it is taught that religion is love for the universe. Therefore, it is important to display the teachings of the scriptures that are intact in response to the factors causing Islamophobia and Christianophobia. However, the root causes of acts of radicalism and terrorism which are also caused by problems of political intrigue and economic inequality also require special attention from world leaders so that public trust in state institutions will be restored.
Therefore, in responding to the problems, this study tries to present the teachings of the al-Qur'an, which integrates moral teachings related to religion, the state and society. The concept of 'religious morality development' includes (1) religious morality (appreciation for faith differences), (2) national morality (love for the state and motherland) and (3) social morality (social integration). Understanding these three points will fulfil several indicators of one's religious maturity, as stated by Wallport above.
Religious humans use commendable morals in their activities, and immoral activities damage the image of religion that comes to glorify human morals, as in the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad. Therefore, the results of this research are expected to assist world leaders and their citizens in building mutual trust and cooperation in countering radical thoughts and actions in their respective regions. Furthermore, the implications of fostering religious morality development according to the Qur'an are expected to reconsider radicalism and help a person in his or her religious maturity and, in the end, will be able to erode the phobia of other religions theoretically.