Moving at the Speed of Creativity

1- The Islamic faith is not equivalent to Christianity, in terms of being a faith with even roughly identical beliefs. This email seems to imply that the origins of Islam and Christianity are the same, so the faiths are basically the same and roughly equal.

Certainly I am not going to argue that as a faith Islam should not be respected and provided with equal protection under the law, both here in the US as well as in other countries. Nor would I or could I deny the shared roots of Islam and Christianity in the OT, with Abraham, etc.

The fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity is Jesus, and the concept of salvation by grace. Justification, or salvation from the condemnation of God which every human deserves because of the sins they have committed in their life, is realized for the Christian through faith in Jesus alone. After being “saved” in declaring/professing faith in Christ, a Christian’s earthly works should reflect this changed orientation. But the key point is, works do not save anyone from judgment according to the belief system of reformed Christians. Only faith in Jesus can and does. Paul made this point adamantly in his letters, and this theme was really at the heart of the entire Protestant reformation. A good website with some Biblical references on this is:

http://www.gotquestions.org/salvation-faith-alone.html

For the Muslim, as I understand the faith based on my own studies and classes on comparative religions, “works” are essential if one is to realize salvation. These works include the daily prayers, taking a trip to Mecca at least once in your life, etc.

I would not claim that anyone practicing the Islamic faith is not devout or religious, or that they don’t subscribe to a monotheistic worldview. Judaism, the Islamic faith, and Christianity are all monotheistic religions. Yet they have fundamental differences that should not be overlooked. And the biggest one is: Who do these people say Jesus was?

One of the best sources I can commend (besides the Bible itself, of course, especially the Gospels and Paul’s letters– Romans and Ephesians, especially) would be C.S. Lewis’s book, “Mere Christianity.” In Chapter 3, pages 40-41, Lewis sums up this position well when he writes:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic– on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg– or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

So that is my primary response to the apparent message of this email forward about Islam: the Islamic faith is NOT equivalent to Christianity, fundamentally because of the answer each provides to the basic question: Who was/is Jesus Christ?

2- Just as Christianity has many variations, so does the Islamic faith. The split between the Shia and the Sunni sects is not addressed in the email text below: Islam is portrayed as a monolithic faith without basic differences in beliefs. This is inaccurate.

This is important for two of the “clarifications” which the email’s author is apparently offering. When it comes to the treatment of women, there are big differences when you look at Middle Eastern countries where more conservative Shia leadership prevails (Iran), and less conservative Muslim governments (Egypt, Mumbai).

It is also important when you consider the clarification the email author is attempting to provide for the word “jihad,” which IS understood to mean “holy war” for many Muslims and non-Muslims. The author of the forwarded text is accurate that the root of the word means, in Arabic, “to strive.” What the author fails to point out is that many Muslims themselves disagree about what “jihad” actually means. While many discount a violent interpretation, many proclaim it. All Muslims do not agree with his view of “jihad” as not being equivalent to Holy War. I think the 9-11 suicide hijackers are dramatic and well known examples of this fact.

The Wikipedia’s entry for “jihad” is more balanced and informative than the definition provided in this email, and the links at the end of the article provide contrary views about the definition of Jihad:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad

I would not want the comments above to be construed as in any way promoting the persecution of Muslims for their beliefs or any type of discriminatory treatment of Muslims. Again, I support the protection of religions under the laws of the US and more generally recognize the freedom of religion as a universal right, as acknowledged in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

My support of equal protection for religions does not correlate with a belief in the equal validity of all religions, however. Stated otherwise, I do not believe that truth is relative.

(Link to the email text to which this blog post is a response (it was copied from this page) at www.masjidannur.com/Community/LearnAboutIslam/WhatisIslam.htm.)