Christians Should be Slow to Stereotype Muslims
I've been wanting to write on this for awhile. I'm disturbed by what I read coming out of the US right now. Christians protesting the building of a mosque in New York. A (and I use the word loosely) Christian pastor from Florida getting headlines for threatening to burn a Koran. (I know I'm a week or two late for when this was at the peak of its tension.)
I just read a news article about Al-Qaeda taking credit for kidnapping 5 French nationals in Niger.
What disturbs me is the comments section beneath the articles where many people claiming to be Christian say this is evidence that Islam is an evil religion. There is nothing good in Islam. Islam is an aberrant political ideology and doesn't even belong in the category of religion.
These are the things people are saying. And many of the ones saying it are claiming to be Christian.
I'd like to make a couple of observations.
(1) Are most of the people making the strongest statements actually Christian? The Americans I know who are most adamantly anti-Islam are what I would call "national" Christians. They attend church a couple of times a year. They are more into God & Country than they are into God. And their rhetoric is more political than religious. Just saying this is my experience. I'm not saying that the Christian team doesn't have any Islam hating folks. I'm just saying that most of the loudest anti-Islam folks show little evidence of actually taking their Christianity seriously.
(2) Most of the serious Christians I know would oppose Islam in a completely different manner. They would try to win hearts and minds, not through coersion, but through love and service and cooperation. It's hard to evangelise someone you hate. This is why a sincere Evangelical Christian would seek to cultivate a positive relationship with Muslims. And would actually oppose those who seek to bait Islam into a war.
(3) Christians (of all people) should recognize that elements within a group do not necessarily represent the group. For example, if we assume that all Muslims are terrorists based on groups like Al-Qaeda, then would it be fair to say that all Christians are child molesters? Seems like an awful lot of child molestation cases coming to light in the last few years - and the Catholic church at least at some levels clearly covered it up and made the problem worse. Were the hundreds of thousands of people who came out to see the Pope in the UK last week supporting child molestation? Of course not!
As a Christian I KNOW it's a very small percentage of Christians who do these things. Based on observation, it's a small percentage of Muslims who engage in or support terrorism.
By writing this cautionary piece I am not suggesting that asking hard questions is out of line. I am not suggesting that confronting behavior which is threatening or aggressive is wrong. I am suggesting that we be careful about stereotypes. I am suggesting that we engage thoughtfully and peacefully where possible.
It's weird. When I read articles about the Catholic Church and their recent struggles with revelations of child molestation... and when I read the comments sections of the articles where person after person concludes "all Christians are evil," "God is evil," "let's wipe this mythology off the face of the earth"... I become strangely defensive. And I'm not even Catholic. The more undisciplined our rhetoric against terrorism is and the more broadly we paint the label, the more defensive Muslims and people living in Muslim nations will (deservedly) become.
Let's try love instead of hate.
I just read a news article about Al-Qaeda taking credit for kidnapping 5 French nationals in Niger.
What disturbs me is the comments section beneath the articles where many people claiming to be Christian say this is evidence that Islam is an evil religion. There is nothing good in Islam. Islam is an aberrant political ideology and doesn't even belong in the category of religion.
These are the things people are saying. And many of the ones saying it are claiming to be Christian.
I'd like to make a couple of observations.
(1) Are most of the people making the strongest statements actually Christian? The Americans I know who are most adamantly anti-Islam are what I would call "national" Christians. They attend church a couple of times a year. They are more into God & Country than they are into God. And their rhetoric is more political than religious. Just saying this is my experience. I'm not saying that the Christian team doesn't have any Islam hating folks. I'm just saying that most of the loudest anti-Islam folks show little evidence of actually taking their Christianity seriously.
(2) Most of the serious Christians I know would oppose Islam in a completely different manner. They would try to win hearts and minds, not through coersion, but through love and service and cooperation. It's hard to evangelise someone you hate. This is why a sincere Evangelical Christian would seek to cultivate a positive relationship with Muslims. And would actually oppose those who seek to bait Islam into a war.
(3) Christians (of all people) should recognize that elements within a group do not necessarily represent the group. For example, if we assume that all Muslims are terrorists based on groups like Al-Qaeda, then would it be fair to say that all Christians are child molesters? Seems like an awful lot of child molestation cases coming to light in the last few years - and the Catholic church at least at some levels clearly covered it up and made the problem worse. Were the hundreds of thousands of people who came out to see the Pope in the UK last week supporting child molestation? Of course not!
As a Christian I KNOW it's a very small percentage of Christians who do these things. Based on observation, it's a small percentage of Muslims who engage in or support terrorism.
By writing this cautionary piece I am not suggesting that asking hard questions is out of line. I am not suggesting that confronting behavior which is threatening or aggressive is wrong. I am suggesting that we be careful about stereotypes. I am suggesting that we engage thoughtfully and peacefully where possible.
It's weird. When I read articles about the Catholic Church and their recent struggles with revelations of child molestation... and when I read the comments sections of the articles where person after person concludes "all Christians are evil," "God is evil," "let's wipe this mythology off the face of the earth"... I become strangely defensive. And I'm not even Catholic. The more undisciplined our rhetoric against terrorism is and the more broadly we paint the label, the more defensive Muslims and people living in Muslim nations will (deservedly) become.
Let's try love instead of hate.
