What You Need to Know about Islam and Muslims

Ohio

PREFACE

When I was in high school and college in the 1950s, the religion Islam and the people called Muslims were relatively unknown. Scholars wrote books on Muhammadanism, and Muslims were viewed as tribal peoples in the deserts of Arabia.

In the 1960s when my family and I journeyed to Iran as the first Southern Baptist missionaries appointed by the mission board to this country 99 percent Muslim, I learned deeply of that part of the Islamic world. Muhammad and Mecca, ayatollahs and the Quran, haj and jihad were everyday expressions. I visited in hundreds of Muslim homes and mosques and received great hospitality.

However, Muslims wondered why everyone, including me, had not accepted Islam and become a Muslim. Jesus was a renowned prophet to them but not the Savior. When some Muslims did make a decision to follow Jesus, they led not only a changed life but often one of danger because they had left their mother religion.

In the 1970s, when I joined the faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Islam was emerging as a growing and powerful global religion. Little had changed in hundreds of years of Christianity's basic ignorance of Islam and outreach to Muslims or of Islam's view of Christianity as a polytheistic and corrupting religion.

In the meanwhile, Islam has soared to over one billion followers with particular mission sights on the Western world of Europe and the United States. And recently, some churches and their mission agencies have become aware of the ever-expanding challenge of Islam and have begun to place more mission resources to encounter the Muslim world in missions, evangelism, and the planting of churches.

This book is written to provide primary information on Islam, its challenges to the Western world and Christian communities, the differences between Islam and Christianity, and the ways of Christian outreach to Muslims. It concludes with a chapter on Muslims in the United States, where their advance is noticeable and powerful, emerging as the second largest religion.

Differences between the major beliefs of Christians and Muslims are real. Muslims are unyielding in their denials of Christian beliefs in the divinity of Jesus, His crucifixion upon the cross, and His resurrection from the tomb. They condemn the Trinity. Christians are unyielding in their unacceptance of Muhammad as the last prophet and of the Quran as the final revelation of God.

In spite of the differences, even beyond them and around them, Christians are called upon by their biblical faith and spiritual sensitivities to reach out to Muslims in love, in service, in speaking the truth with compassion, and in sharing the meaning of their salvation experience in Jesus Christ. Little good has ever been experienced in argumentation, and much less ridiculing and degrading Islam.

What is new and challenging is the nearness and close proximity of Christians to Muslims, particularly in the Western world. There are more fresh opportunities for Christian encounters with Muslims and witness to them. And in spite of the differences, Muslims do believe their Quran when it says that Jesus is the Word and Spirit of God. What does that mean for them? What can the Christian do to help them understand the meanings from the biblical faith? Where there is love, there is hope. The Muslims are here. The Christians are coming.

CHAPTER 1

THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING!

DID YOU KNOW?

The non-Muslim world knows little of the people called Muslims and their religion, Islam. Many people think all Muslims speak Arabic, live in the Middle East, and launch attacks against the state of Israel. In fact, most Muslims live outside the Middle East, speak little if any Arabic, and live normal, peaceful lives.

Muslims who take their religion seriously believe it is the proper and correct religion for all the world. They believe the non-Muslim world is weak and corrupt. It needs Islam. Therefore, Islam should be carried to the ends of the earth. Consider the following:

There are as many Muslims in Indonesia, the largest populated Muslim nation, as there are Arab Muslims in the heartland of the Middle East.

Islam has challenged Judaism as the second largest religion in the United States.

Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe.

A Muslim leader has inaugurated a session of the United States Senate, praying in the name of Allah.

The majority of Iranians are Shiite Muslims who expect the return of the twelfth Imam to bring a pure reign on earth.

The third-holiest city for Muslims is Jerusalem, where it is said their prophet Muhammad once ascended to heaven from the Dome of the Rock and spoke with Jesus.

Every Muslim is on jihad to please God and to spread the true religion Islam.

The prophet Muhammad was a warrior king leading his forces into battles against other tribes, including Jews. In one battle, his forces slaughtered eight hundred male Jews and took their wives and children as booty.

Some Muslim groups are so militant that they kill civilians in the name of Allah and claim immediate entry to heaven as martyrs.

Some popular forms of Islam venerate saints and offer prayers to them.

Muhammad was given a special revelation to have some thirteen wives or concubines, whereas other men could have only up to four wives with certain responsibilities. Muhammad's favorite wife was Aisha; he was betrothed to her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine.

Islam is one of the fastest-growing world religions, numbering over one billion adherents.

Saudi Arabia considers itself the caretaker of Mecca, Islam's holiest city, and allows no Christian missionaries to enter it and no Christian churches to be built on its soil. Saudi Arabia spends tens of millions of dollars funding Muslim missionaries and building mosques in countries around the world, including the United States.

Muslims are a majority in forty-five African and Asian countries.

One hundred million Muslims live in India, where most inhabitants are Hindus. Almost as many Muslims live in India as in Iran and Egypt combined.

Of the ten nations with the largest Muslim populations, Muslims are a minority in three—India, China, and Nigeria.

Muslims are required to pray five times daily facing the city of Mecca.

Many Muslims think that Christians believe in three deities: God, Jesus, and the virgin Mary.

Muslim leaders often censure Western nations—especially Europe and the United States—because of their violence, moral corruption, and rampant sexual immorality.

A United Nations demographic report forecasts Muslims will represent at least half of the global birthrate after the year 2055.

Saudi Arabia has given tens of millions of dollars to Harvard University and the University of Arkansas to fund Islamic study centers.

Muslims and Christians in recent times have fought each other in Lebanon, Sudan, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia. These peoples are often restless toward each other in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING…THEY ARE HERE!

Muslims have emerged from the desert sands as a growing and powerful religious force. They number over one billion. Islam means submission to God, and Muslim means one who submits to God. Muslims believe that Allah is the only true God and that the Quran, the perfect holy book, teaches the correct way of belief and practice. They believe Islam is a universal and uniform religion for all peoples and cultures with little variety and diversity in its major beliefs and practices.

The Muslims are here! For over 1,400 years Islam has expanded far beyond its Middle Eastern origins. Today Muslims are numerous on every continent: Africa boasts 308,660,000; Asia, 778,362,000; Europe, 32,032,000; Latin America, 1,356,000; North America, 5,530,000; and Oceania, 385,000; for a total of 1,126,325,000.¹ Islam is a world religion characterized by missions, mobility, and militancy.

Classical Islam divides the world into two areas: (1) the world of peace, where Islam is practiced and the Quran is observed; (2) the world of warfare and ignorance, dominated by non-Muslims. The mission of Islam is to bring this second world under Islam.

MISSIONS, MOBILITY, MILITANCY

Islam is a religion with missions at its heart. Every Muslim should strive to please Allah and to offer Allah's religion to others. Islam has been able to cross geographical and cultural divides to gain followers and to make certain adaptations to other cultures for its success.

Islam is a missionary religion. It is energized by its theocratic world vision and mission. All of life should be subsumed under the laws of Allah: personal life, family life, culture, society, religion, government. The roots of the vision are in the Quran. Therefore, Muslims are under a mandate to establish this vision wherever Islam is present. Muslims are on mission.

Islam is a mobile religion. It can be carried across populations and cultures. Many memorize the Quran, which is no longer than the New Testament, with 114 chapters, or suras, in the Arabic language. Islam's origins in a tribal society made its attributes, notably its patriarchal family and polygamy, applicable to African tribes. Muslim traders carried Islam to Indonesia, and it adapted to the cultural layers of Hinduism and animism in Indonesian society. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country. The simplicity of belief and the practice of the pillars of Islam have made it appealing and approachable across cultures.

Islam is a militant religion. Jihad is an important concept. It has two aspects: (1) the Islamic requirements that the individual must practice to be a worthy Muslim; (2) the warfare of the community against infidels and those who attack or resist Islam. All Muslims are under mandate to practice jihad because they believe that Islam is the correct and perfect religion and that all other religions are inferior. Not only are they to follow the teachings of the Quran, but they are also to emulate the model of their prophet Muhammad, who led his fighting forces into battle to defend Islam and to make Islam dominant. Waging community or national warfare must follow certain rules interpreted and provided by religious leadership.

Thus, Islam as a missionary, mobile, and militant religion has become the fastest-growing religion worldwide. It has become a religious and political force in Europe, has risen to challenge Judaism as the second-largest religion in the United States, has sent missionaries and monies to bring about Islamic revival in the republics of Central Asia, and has continued to expand across Africa.

WHY DO WE HEAR SO MUCH ABOUT ISLAM?

Here are some reasons that Islam has grown and gained so much attention in recent years.

1. Muslim thinkers and writers have reacted vehemently against the encroachments of European and American culture, politics, and national policies upon Muslim nations and populations and have awakened its followers.

2. Formation of the state of Israel has galvanized Muslim nations and peoples against Israel, for the rights of Palestinians, and for the rights of Muslims to the holy places in Jerusalem.

3. Terrorist acts against peoples, planes, buildings, and nations have been launched by groups using the names of Islam, Muslim, and jihad and have been supported by Islamic interests.

4. Oil wealth has helped Muslim governments strengthen Islamic identity, self-confidence, and political power to counteract Western dominance and to fund Islamic advance—notably in Africa, Europe, Central Asia, and North America.

5. The Iranian revolution, which ousted a Western-leaning Shah and established the fundamentalist Islamic Republic of Iran, has inspired and funded many worldwide Islamic movements that underscore the missionary, mobile, and militant aspects of Islam.

6. The demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened up Islamic mission advances inspired by native populations of the republics and supported by help from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey.

7. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have moved to Europe and the United States; Islam has become a religion of dominant expression in Europe and the emerging second-largest religion in the United States. Many Muslims have become citizens, have married nationals, and are raising their children as Muslims.

ISLAM RESPONDS

Muslims must Islamicize non-Muslims by persuasion and conversion. Sometimes force has been a method. If non-Muslims do not accept Islam, they must submit to Islamic authority and rule. Islam is over against the non-Muslim world.² Early Jewish tribes refused to submit to the prophet Muhammad and hundreds were slaughtered. Jews have been tolerated with limited freedoms in dominant Muslim territories.

From its very beginning Islam viewed Christianity as a religion of idolatry and contamination. One of the greatest sins—shirk in Arabic—is to believe that God could share his nature with humanity. Therefore, Islam denied the Christian beliefs of the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion and death of Jesus for the sins of the world, and the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. Through the centuries, Muslims have waged warfare against Christians, both physical and verbal, and Christians have fought Muslims, notably in the Crusades. Where there has been Muslim dominance, Christians have been treated as minorities, dhimmis, and given limited freedoms.

Suspicion, distrust, and hostility characterize the history of Christian-Muslim relations. Stereotypes have prevailed. Islam has attacked Christianity for its polytheism and corruption of the Scriptures. Christianity has considered Islam a heretical and impenetrable religion.

The Islamic world has fought the West's impositions of its values, cultural forms, and politics upon Muslim peoples. Accusations of colonialism and imperialism have been heralded especially against Europe and the United States. The Iranian Islamic revolution castigated the United States as the Great Satan and cast out Christian missionaries. Saudi Arabia has primarily relied upon the United States for the modernization and technology of its society but prohibits any church or Christian missionary presence on its soil.

Christians, with few exceptions, have maintained their distance from Muslims. They have done little to understand Muslims, to prepare to send missionaries to Muslim people, and to develop a Christian apologetic for Muslims. Christians have continued to be unfamiliar with Muslims and their religion. Mass media has associated the words ayatollah, jihad, and terrorist with Islam. Muslims are stereotyped as warlike, savage, and uncivilized.

Some scholars have written of the coming clash of civilizations between the Islamic world and the Western or Christian world. Christian churches and mission agencies are awakening to the presence and strength of Islam, to its missions worldwide, and to its agenda to become the dominant religious and cultural expression. Christian mission agencies are restructuring their strategies to include the unreached Muslim peoples groups. Christians are discovering that they have Muslim neighbors, that mosques are being built next to churches, that their medical doctors are Muslims, and that their children attend school with Muslims. In the United States a Muslim leader has opened a session of Congress with prayer in the name of Allah. There are Muslim chaplains in the armed services.

The Muslims are coming…No! The Muslims are already here. They are worldwide. They are growing in numbers and influence. They offer religious help to millions. They have a religious, social, and political agenda. They present one of the greatest challenges to Christianity and to Christians.

CHRISTIAN RESPONSES TO ISLAM

For over 1,400 years, Islam has considered Christianity to be a false and corrupting religion. Christianity has viewed Islam as a heretical religion. For the most part, each has let the other alone. The present time has brought each other closer. Islam has greatly penetrated the non-Muslim world. Christianity has begun to awaken to the presence of Muslims.

What are Christians and churches to do? Consider the following:

1. Christians should let the past be the past. There has been much ignorance and misunderstanding of Muslims by Christians and vice versa. The past is important for learning and understanding, but Christians and the church must seize the present to prepare for the future.

2. Christians should understand the basics of Islam. Determine the beliefs and practices of what the Quran teaches, of what tradition teaches, of varied interpretations of Muslim thinkers, schools of thought, and ordinary individuals. It is important to know what the Quran teaches about God, Jesus, prayer, judgment, and salvation. It is essential to know what is orthodox Islam and any deviations from it, namely, folk Islam.

3. Christians should distinguish between different kinds of Muslims. There are individual Muslims. There are communities of Muslims. Some nations are called Islamic Republics because diverse Muslim peoples live in them. Orthodox Muslims adhere to the letter of the Quran, but folk Muslims mix Islam with tribalism and animism. It is important to know what kind of Islam an individual Muslim observes.

4. Christians should prepare themselves for Muslims' misunderstandings of Christianity and Christians. Some Muslims assume that Christians are polytheists, assuming they worship three gods in the Trinity. Some think that every Christian is a Crusader. Christianity is believed to be a warring religion. Some believe that Christians are cannibals in eating the body and blood of Jesus in the Lord's Supper.

5. Christians should prepare themselves to witness to Muslims. Christian witness to Muslims is based not only on understanding as much as possible about Muslim belief and practice but also on one's own preparation in Scripture and prayer. One would not invite Muslims to one's table and serve pork. That would be offensive and insensitive. Christians should know that the Quran states that Jesus is messiah, word of God, spirit of God, prophet of God, born of the virgin Mary. Some Muslims may not know the Quran asserts these things, nor do they know the meaning of these ideas, either from the Islamic perspective or from the biblical and Christian perspective. Christians must witness through prayer, understanding, and sensitivity and approach Muslims in knowledge and love. They must give their witness from their own experience in God through relationship with Jesus Christ.

6. Christians should reach out in witness to Muslims. Many Muslims and Muslim people groups live in areas of danger from earthquakes, drought, floods, typhoons, and diminished resources. They experience abnormal hunger, poverty, illiteracy, and early death. Christian outreach through the means of food, housing, digging of wells, agricultural training, and literacy in times of need demonstrates Christian love and good will. The Christian gospel may be heard and accepted through deeds and words in critical times. Christians who go in the name of Jesus—Isa in Islam—sharing the good news personally and preaching it, may reap the harvest of salvation and reconciliation among Muslims.

7. Christians should plant churches among Muslim peoples. For centuries evangelism and church planting among Muslim peoples was slow and nearly nonexistent. New strategies for starting churches have been initiated. Improved results have been demonstrated. Muslims who seek information about Christianity often place themselves in danger of persecution. Muslims who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord are often ostracized from their families and communities. Some have been killed.

Muslim people groups have been identified with common language, ethnicity, and similar Islamic roots. These groups may or may not be within national or state boundaries. However, these common traits among Muslims help them to assimilate into a Christian fellowship and church and provide them more security and community. The context of church planting becomes important. Muslim culture becomes critical in terms of what and how a Muslim convert may accommodate and disassociate as one becomes a follower of Jesus in Christian community.

What does the future hold for relations between Christianity and Islam? That is uncertain, but one thing is clear: both religions have a message and a mandate. Christianity has a mandate to go into all the world and preach the gospel, a gospel of salvation and reconciliation in Jesus Christ. Islam has a mandate to practice jihad and to bring the non-Muslim world under the rule of Allah and the injunctions of the Quran.

Scholars may speculate about the clash of civilizations and about accommodations between religions. The mission of the Christian and the church is to present the gospel of love, salvation, and reconciliation to Muslims whose lives