Introduction to Islam for Christians
by Paul GrantHere are various resources to understand Islam. See the index immediately below this introduction.
Islam is everywhere in the Western, and especially the American, media since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Islam presented, however, is primarily a political and social movement: the media typically do not have the patience to understand subtlety and devotion.
Of course, Islam as lived by Muslims is far more communal and corporate than the Christianity of popular American imagination - a private, unobtrusive set of lifestyle values that make no demands on others. Rather, Islam involves and makes demands upon the entire community, government and world. Indeed, there is some lively discussion among Muslim intellectuals as to whether or not there can possibly exist an Islam that makes no political demands. At the same time, the Christianity that is dominant in Africa and increasingly influential in parts of Asia and Latin America is highly corporate and communal, and is baffled that Americans could even conceive of devotion to an all-mighty God, which does not involve all of life. So in its whole-life approach, Islam is not unique; it is the fragmented spiritual life of Western Christianity that is abnormal.
So Islam can simultaneously be viewed as a sociopolitical force, a religion, and more. To fragment its levels of function is to misunderstand the nature of this religion.
Christians need a greater understanding of Islam. Misinformation allows people to be swayed by rhetoric - which in the last year has ranged from "Islam is a terrorist movement" to "Islam is a pacifist religion", both of which are oversimplifications and inaccurate. Christians need a greater understanding of Islam because we need to know a little bit before we can care at all for the people. If there is any missions anywhere in the world, it has to be missions with real, whole, living human beings, not types, numbers or objects. Christians need a greater understanding of Islam because misunderstanding has led to untold violence and destruction. Christians committed revolting crimes against Muslims in the Crusades, and this history is very much alive in the memory of the Middle East. William Faulkner once said, the past is not dead; it's not even past.
From the point of view of the Muslim world, there has been an unbroken chain of humiliation and oppression by Christianity ever since. From the Spanish "reconquest" of Arab Europe, to colonialism from Algeria to the Philippines; from Western nation-building of Israel without equivalent support to Muslim developing nations, to propping-up of dictators (such as Saddam Hussein) who oppress their people. Never mind that most of these deeds were not done in the name of Christianity. In the minds of many Muslims, they were. And perception is everything. If an American president goes to church on Sunday, and on Monday goes to trade negotiations that include demands for a Muslim country to open its doors to the American entertainment industry, the impression is that Christianity promotes pornography. Every time Americans call themselves a "Christian Nation", the Muslim world understands that all the fruit of America is the fruit of Christianity.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register