November 2001

ISLAM

             Everyone is concerned that the war will generate unwarranted actions of violence against people of Arab descent who live in our country. Even greater is the threat of acting out against people of the Islamic faith.  I am trying to understand the mindset of the followers of Mohammed myself.  A few years ago I read Leon Uris’ book entitled The Haj, which gave a personality sketch of middle eastern people in the form of an historical novel.  After September 11, I went to Border’s to purchase a copy of the Qur’an, and the girl at the desk thought they were sold out because there had been such a rush on them.  President Bush has said that the Muslim religion (Also called Islam or Mohammedanism) is a peace-loving religion.  Oprah Winfrey recently had a program she called “Islam 101.”  In it she called Islam the most misunderstood of the three major religions. 

            Now, even though I would be the first to say that we should not engender hate toward people of other faiths, neither am I willing to make it appear that the Islamic people are basically Christians with turbans.  There is a vast difference between Christianity and Islam.  First of all, if you read the Qur’an you understand that while Christians try to convert the unbeliever, Muslims are told to kill the infidel: “Fight and slay the pagans (non-Muslims) wherever you find them.” (Surah 9:5).  Islam teaches that women are inferior to men (Surah 2:228).  In fact, a man may beat his wife ((Surah 4:34).  Muslims may not have Jews or Christians as friends (5:54).  Tolerance is not a doctrine of Islam.  Adulterers are to be flogged in public, and thieves are to have their hands cut off (Surah 5:41, 4:2).   Surah 8:60 states: “Strike terror [into the hearts of] the enemies of God and your enemies.” 

            Consider these realities: In southern Sudan, Muslims have destroyed entire villages, killing thousands of Christians, only after crucifying their leaders before their eyes.  In Uganda, Idi Amin slaughtered 300,000 of his own people, mostly Christians, after he embraced Islam.  In Nigeria, Christians are being beaten, imprisoned, and killed by Muslims.  Converting to Islam is the only way out.  In Egypt, 12 million Coptic Christians, who predate Muslims in that nation, face annihilation.  None of the countries where the Muslim religion is in the majority have equal rights for women or freedom of religion.  Christians in most of these countries are persecuted for their faith, their churches are burned, and their lives are in danger.  In the Sudan whole families are sold into slavery.  On October 8, a columnist for the New York Post wrote: “We can sit around making diversity quilts and thinking happy thoughts, or we can, with charity, commit ourselves to soberly assessing the historical and present-day reality of ‘peaceful’ Islam, and its relations with non-Muslims.” 

            An aggressive stance toward Muslims in our country or elsewhere is inappropriate, but neither do we want to be naive about the threat it posses to the stability of the world.  The New York Post article reporting on the Oprah show said: “Take her interview with Queen Rania of Jordan, a lovely, modern young woman who looks more at home in the pages of Vogue than in a hijab. The queen said that Islam ‘doesn't impose anything’ on people — an absurd lie. Oprah asked her about the so-called ‘honor killings’ of women in Jordan, murders committed by men against women in their families who are believed to have shamed the clan. For example, some young women who have been raped are in turn murdered by their male relatives for having stained the family's honor. . . .  That Oprah let these statements be broadcast unchallenged is appalling, an absurd fantasy that ignores the enormous suffering actual Muslims are inflicting on non-Muslim populations worldwide. ‘Wherever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have problems living peaceably with their neighbors,’ Harvard's [Samuel P.] Huntington wrote.  ‘Muslims make up about one-fifth of the world’s population but in the 1990s they have been far more involved in intergroup violence than the people of any other civilization.  The evidence is overwhelming.’” 

            Some would argue that Christians have had their own checkered past with regard to violence.  That is true, but when they did so they always went against their Scriptures and the clear teaching of the faith, not in concert with it.  And this kind of action was always purged from the church.  Look at the influence of Christianity on Europe and America.  Slavery was put to a stop and women are given a place of dignity and honor.  We treat our enemies better than some governments treat their own people.  The teachings of Christianity not only transforms lives, it transforms whole cultures.  One look at Afghanistan or the other Arab countries is enough to show what kind of influence Islam has had. 

            It is not pleasant to write something like this, but with the crescendo of confusion in this area it seems regrettably necessary. 

Praying for peace,

Rod