II.

Christian misconceptions about Islam

A. These are things those of us who are Christians need to take to heart.

Many Christians see all Muslims as extremists, terrorists, or intolerant. There is a tendency to see all Muslims as religious fanatics instead of normal, pious people. I think there are three main reasons for this:

1. Many Christians believe media bias which often shows extremism. They don't realize that they are being given an incomplete picture. Many are often ignorant of the variety within Islam that there are peaceful groups as well as violent ones, spiritually motivated groups as well as politically motivated ones.
    
2. Many Christians don't understand the political side of Islam. Christians tend to be ignorant of Muhammad's role as political ruler in Medina and the enormous amount of teaching and law in the Qur'an and Islam regarding politics. Many tend to simplistically look at Muhammad through the example of Jesus who did not have a political agenda.
    
3. Although Jesus grew up under an oppressive imperialistic power, Western Christians don't know the experience of being dominated by another political or economic power. Note I have said Western Christians and not Middle Eastern, African, Eastern European, and Chinese Christians to name a few. Western Christians find it hard to appreciate the hurt much of the West's involvement in the Middle East has caused Muslims. They don't understand the frustration that fuels much of the violence the extremists commit. Western Christians often don't understand poverty and oppression because their lives have been relatively free from injustice and want.

These are the reasons why I think Christians often make unfair generalizations as to what Muslims are like.

B. Many Christians don't understand Muhammad's place in Islam, and it leads them to two
kinds of misconception concerning Muhammad:

1. Often Christians out of ignorance tend to think that Muhammad holds the same general place in Islam that Jesus holds in Christianity. They don't realize that Muslims don't see Islam as "Mohammad's" religion, that is, a religion that Muhammad began. Muslims see Islam as the basic religion that all prophets proclaimed, Muhammad happening to be the last prophet. This is why the term "Mohammedanism" is offensive to Muslims and is more properly replaced with "Islam". The misconception here is over-estimating the importance of Muhammad to Muslims in the religion of Islam, almost believing they worship him.
    
2. On the other hand, Christians also underestimate what Muhammad means to Muslims. This is seen in that many Christians don't understand the current attitude toward Muhammad as expressed in the Salmon Rushdie affair. While Muslims don't worship Muhammad, Christians often don't understand the place of affection and devotion he does have so that they understand the hurt defaming remarks cause. Muslims see Muhammad as the last and greatest of the prophets and so accord him the greatest amount of respect that they give to any man. It is like the hurt Christians feel when they hear Jesus called "just a good teacher", "just a man", or even "just a prophet". To Christians, Jesus is so much more, and to call Him something less is blasphemy. Christians need to understand the emotions involved in others' beliefs and be sensitive to Muslims.

 C. Many Christians have misconceptions about the roles of politics and religion in Islam.

Christians can tend to believe that Islam is exclusively spread by the sword. They are often ignorant of world history that shows that much of Islam's spread in the world was the result of traders and Muslim Sufi missionaries. This is especially true for Islam's spread in Asia. Western Christians tend to know more about the wars with Islam that occurred around the Mediterranean and in Europe.

Also, many Christians are ignorant of the political nature of Islam so they think it should not be involved in politics today. Throughout history Islam has seen political means as being appropriate for accomplishing the spread of the religion since the religion of Islam is meant to embrace the whole of life. Christians often don't realize that the Qur'an and Islamic law embrace not only personal religion but family law, civil law, and criminal law.

Christians also forget that for much of the history of Christianity, the Church shared this view that it was to be intimately involved in politics. The Church has for much of its history seen the sword of political authority as a necessary and proper support for its position. Only in recent years has this expectation been overturned.

D. Many Christians see Islamic culture as backward and unrefined.

Christians are often ignorant of Islam's rich and full cultural heritage. They don't know that Muslims have extensive bodies of literature in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. They don't know that Islam has a long and full history in architecture, calligraphy, poetry, philosophy and science. This leads to Christians not understanding why Muslims often take more pride in their Islamic cultural heritage than in the cultural achievements of the West.

Like the West in general, Christians often tend to judge other nations in terms of technological progress, or they slip into simple prejudice at something that they don't understand.

Christians are often ignorant of the influences Islam has had on our own culture. They don't realize that our knowledge of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy came through Arabic translations of these texts. Many are ignorant of the debates and discussions in theology that took place between Islamic and Christian scholars for hundreds of years. They don't realize that all of our sciences and especially mathematics, medicine and astronomy were influenced by Medieval Islamic books and research. Many don't realize that all of our fine arts have been profoundly influenced by Islamic fine arts, from painting and literature to architecture and music. In general, many Christians are ignorant of the long and varied history of contact and influence between Islam and Christianity.

These are just some of many areas where Christians need to become better informed concerning Islam.