Muslim-hating

I will probably get myself in a great deal of trouble with this post. I won't make anyone happy, I don't imagine. People who want all religions to coexist as equals will not be pleased with what follows. Neither will those who see Islam as the next great scourge of our planet. I apologize for that in advance. I have to speak as the Holy Spirit leads my heart. I see the elements of a gathering storm that I find ominous.

The storm is the rise of Muslim-hating by the largely Caucasian west. People of Islamic faith are being seen as the new deadly threat to life as we know it. (I guess we've been struggling to find a bogey-man for our cultural fears since Communism fell apart.) Seriously, I am well aware that violence seems endemic to many people who embrace Islamic faith. The threats resulting from this fanaticism are quite real, and I know that. It's important, though, that we realize that Islam as a whole is as diverse as those who slap the label "Christian" on themselves. The various sects of Islam can't even agree on the meaning of the word jihad, which we presume means "holy war" or "death to infidels." (As best I can tell, the root meaning of the word seems to be "to persevere.")

Followers of Jesus do not have the luxury of either a universalist approach to those of the Muslim faith or a blanket judgement of them. We too conveniently forget scriptures that command us to pray for our enemies and to bless those who persecute us. In our checkered history, true evangelization has been weakest and most shallow when "Christians" are motivated primarily by fear and hate. Witness the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, etc. Conversely, we are strongest when we stand faithfully and lovingly in the face of opposition, even if it means our martyrdom, as in the first two centuries of the movement's existence.

I once played coed church volleyball in a YMCA league. One of our regular referees was an Iranian expatriot with an Islamic background. He once asked members of our team if we could explain this Jesus to him. Had we dismissed him as a faceless part of a monolithic threat, we would have never had the chance to do so.

Worldwide, Islam is a rapidly growing movement. Instead of jumping to a defensive posture in the face of threat, maybe we who follow Jesus should be asking why this is the case? To what are people drawn and what kind of people are drawn? How have we not offered the living Jesus in a compelling way that could counter the works-righteousness approach of Muslim faith?

I never trust collective demonizing. It usually says less about a presumed enemy and more about where we as the followers of Jesus are coming up short. Just my thoughts...I accept and respect varying opinions. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.