Lord, Have Mercy!

When educated Christian leaders do not know the difference between Christianity and Islam, it is sad. It is sad for the Muslims, who are left in the dark about what the real issues are. And they are many. They are fundamental. It is alarming that Christian leaders, who claim to be enlightened, well read, educated, do not manage to discern the gap between the two religions.

The New Testament in Arabic

            What causes the blindness, I am not one to say, but clearly there is a will to blindness.  For me the main issue is one of human nature versus God. Christian teachings assert that there is a fundamental breech between humanity and God, so severe that no human – not even the most dutiful Catholic in his mystical meanderings  - may reach God without the help and initiative by God. Jesus Christ is the necessary connector. “No one can come to the Father except through me”, he says.

            In Islam the fall of man was not detrimental, did not have any lethal consequences, but was dealt with in the beginning of time. In Islam all are born with the natural inclination to submit to Allah. This natural inclination is valid for all animals and anything that has life in it.

            We could go on and list many other differences, particularly in the notion of the godhead. Allah is one, not a trinity.  Allah does not reveal himself, but only his will, through messengers, like Jibril, who taught Muhammad what to recite. The God of the Bible reveals himself through history, and in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God, one who relates to the Father and the Holy Spirit in a most intertwined way. In the Qur’an Jesus is portrayed as a prophet, the son of Mary, and quite definitely not the Son of God (Allah forbid; Allah has no sons). Allah is supreme; his will is not anything a mere human can understand, but must always accept. Some are born to paradise; some to hell. Yes, some are born to destruction. Christians and Jews are tolerated to a certain extent, in some instances positively spoken of, in other instances harshly negatively spoken of.

            The interaction between the groups comes out in various ways, but the Muslim is always superior to any of the other groups. This is by definition, because he is one who submits to the will of Allah, and the others don’t. There is no question about whether this is a supremacy religion or not. It is. It defines itself as it, and most observing Muslims are proud of it.

It is some time since I read the Qur’an, and I read it in an early English translation, which did not intend to smooth over the rather hard and radical expressions of retribution, revenge, and retaliation. Allah is stern in his retributions.

There is no ‘love your enemies’ message, but ‘kill your enemies’, but do not be the one to make the first move. Retaliate. There is no ‘you shall not lie’ command, but there are allowances for lying to the unbelievers, when this might aid the cause of Allah. On occasions people boast, as if winning a game, when one managed to fool ones opponent out of money, etc.  The Qur’an has several suras about the prosperity the ones will gain in business, in material wealth. In fact, because of Allah’s reign supreme, they will be the wealthiest. They are entitled to this benefit. The same is reflected in land: once under Muslim dominion, always under Muslim dominion.

The Gospel

            I need not mention any more at this point. This is no systematic comparison between Christianity and Islam. This is a simple list of things which should suffice to show that there is a fundamental difference between Christian belief and Muslim belief. We do not have the same God; we do not have the same understanding of what the relationship between God and mankind is. We do not have the same saviour.

Jesus is the Saviour of the world; Jesus is the saviour of the ones called Muslims. They must be allowed to hear about the way of life and love and hope and future which has set us free – of Jesus Christ, who gives each one a new life, one which lasts for eternity.

Why, I wonder, do we have Christian leaders and priest who want to blur this divide, who then deny Christ. They deny access to Christ, deny Muslims knowledge of him and of all he will give. And they deny their own faith in Christ – by pretending the message about him is not valid.

Lord, have mercy! ( x3)