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| Image courtesy of arenapublica.com |
The holy month of Ramadhan will commence this week as
millions of muslims over the world will be involved in a peaceful time of
prayer and fasting. Months prior, few muslims have known peace. ISIS spreads
terror by the day, Al Shabaab continue to wage their war that has seen the world
turn on muslims. The raid on muslims carried out in Eastleigh earlier this year
made me cringe. The threat of terrorism is real but the retaliation in its
aftermath has been controversial.
Muslims have been misunderstood and if I were to liken the
world to high school status groups, Americans and Europe would be jocks, the
cool group who like to set the agenda. Asians and Africans would be the nerds
or geeks who sometimes get bullied or used by the jocks. Muslims would be the Goths,
the crowd that others tend to avoid because of their distinct
dressing, language, and culture. They
are people like us but little effort has been made to understand them or
relate to them with compassion beyond mere tolerance. After reading the book,
The crescent through the eyes of the Cross by Dr Nabeel Jabbour, my viewpoint
on muslims was altered in a big way. I had got it all wrong and my heart is
filled with remorse. Therefore I pen this letter to any muslim out there and it
reads:
Dear Muslim,
I admit for a long time I have been cold and distant to you.
I have not bothered in the slightest to get to know you better. I have
considered your mannerisms, language, dressing as peculiar. Interaction between
us has been sporadic. We share a few interests like our love for football. I oft recall how I watch
European football highlights on YouTube and the first links I view will feature
games in Arabic commentary. In as much as I have no idea what a goal means in
Arabic, I can feel the mutual passion we have for the beautiful game when the commentators exclaims incessantly after a goal has been scored. We love football;
perhaps this will be what opens the line of communication between us. You can
check out the videos below to get what I mean.
I concede the fact that I have been woefully ignorant,
ignorant of your legitimate grievances, ignorant of your struggles, ignorant of
your need to be understood. I was made aware of this ignorance after I read the
book and I see this ignorance perpetuated on a daily basis amongst my fellow
brothers and sisters who follow Jesus. I had such a limited understanding of what
you go through and I would just like to say a heartfelt sorry. We have
mistreated you. We have wronged you. It is my hope that you will forgive us.
I used to think of you as one and the same but I realize they
are distinct groups of muslims. They are cultural muslims who are not religious
but were just born into muslim. They are Islamic muslims who are religious and
adhere to the teachings of the Qur'an, some being moderate and open to other
teachings and some being fundamentalists. Then there are the militant muslims,
those who defend the muslim faith by means of armed conflict. They consist of
both fundamentalists and fanatics. They are the ones involved in acts of
terror. It's sad that I along with many others have presumed all of you to be
fanatics and fundamentalists or fanatic sympathizers keen on fighting us. It is sad that we have lumped
you into one group ignoring the liberal Islamic or cultural muslims who are
open minded and some actually seek to know more about Christ. These group are peaceful and abhor the tactics used by ISIS and Al Shabaab.
The cultural and Islamic muslims who were moderate used to be
majority and influenced militant muslims to lean towards moderation. With time
there has been a paradigm shift, the militant muslims have been influencing
cultural and Islamic muslims towards fanaticism with more people joining ISIS
and Al Shabaab. This is a worrying trend. As I read the book, I am not surprised
about this development, if I were a muslim I doubt I would react any different.
Lately terrorism has been on the up. ISIS is killing both
Christians and Muslims. Al-Shabaab has been active as well especially in my
country, Kenya. I would wonder why these terrorists were so keen on this
battle. We have falsely believed that their motivation is just a jihad and
the reward of getting virgins in heaven but I have discovered it is much more. In
Kenya we have presumed that it is unemployed youth who have no hope for a
future that are the main cause for the militia's rapid spread but we are wrong.
Much to my surprise and shock, I have discovered that Christians have played a
major role in birthing groups such as ISIS.
It started centuries ago during the Crusades of the 12th
and 13th centuries. Western Christian nations sent fleets of armies to invade
your lands with the aim of forcing upon Muslims a Christian Jihad to clean up
Jerusalem. It was believed that this Christian fanaticism is what has recreated
the fanaticism of Islam today. I can see it today with the US Middle East
Policy as the desire to impose US style democracy has been a catalyst to the
rise of Islamic fundamentalists and fanatics.
Your people have a brotherhood. You call it Ummah, the
solidarity of God’s people in Islam that unites you together in joy and pain
so whenever an attack on muslims is carried out in Pakistan, Nigeria or
Palestine you are one in grief and one in joy. Therefore I suppose you are one
in disdain for Israel. You are one with Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq when
you see them being bombed to submission.
The US ties with Israel have also acerbated matters. We
always hear about the eternal conflict between Israel and Palestine and also
the hostility among surrounding Arab nations towards Israel. We never do much
about it. We ignore it pretty much. In fact we tend to side with Israel rather
than agitate for peace. I used to think
Israel was innocent, Israel was the good guy but I realize they are also
culpable as well. Once Hezbollah of Lebanon kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and
launched rockets to Israel. Israel was outraged and rightly so but they
retaliated in over-zealous fashion. Israel responded by not only attacking
Hezbollah targets but laying siege to other parts of Lebanon in the process
killing and wounding innocent civilians. It was too much and sadly the US
Administration seemed to approve of those attacks. Some muslims hold the view
that the US Administration thinks that the Middle East can be bombed
into democracy. I would not want to believe this but should it be true then this
is a grave injustice to the muslim world. It would make perfect sense why you
despise America. You see them as hypocrites with double standards always
parading themselves as a fighter of justice, always advocating for human
rights but openly siding with Israel when they meted out unjust attacks
on Lebanon. These conflicts are quite complex in nature but I see it is
wrong to just view Israel as victims, the muslim world has also suffered as
well, they too are grieving and you share their pain because of the Ummah wherever you are.
These double standards persist. A Jewish soldier who invades
Palestine and kills Palestinians while occupying THEIR land is seen as a hero,
whereas a Palestinian who tries to defend HIS land from invasion by use of his
body is seen as a terrorist. The shocking thing is that we tend to side with
Israel because we feel theologically close to them; after reading the book, I
wonder why?
We believe that Jesus was born in Israel amongst the Jews but
we tend to forget that the Jewish high priest regarded him as a blasphemer. It
is the Jews that put him on the cross and bayed for his blood. A lot of Jews today
do not recognize him as the Messiah as we do, so why do we feel theologically
closer to Israel than Muslims, who in the Qur'an call him Isa and revere him.
You believe that he was born of a virgin that he healed the blind, raised the
dead and now is with God in heaven and will come back on the day of judgement
as the sign of the hour. You respect him but a good number of Jews don't.
Consequently, I actually don’t know why we feel closer to the Jews or Israel.
The 'them versus us' mentality has persisted and I sense your
despair, I can see why you are so drawn towards fanaticism. You believe there
is no separation between religion and state; they are one and Islam is such.
Like us you were colonized by Western Nations, Britain, Portugal, Italy,
France, and Germany who you view as Christian Nations. Under colonialism these
nations depleted your resources under the pretext of introducing civilization
and democracy. It isn't quite different from what is happening in the Middle
East as American and European troops invade your lands.
The same western nations initiated sanctions that led to the
death of about 870, 000 children as a result of a shortage of antibiotics and
because of malnutrition during the gulf war between 1991 and 2003. My belated
condolences, indeed you have suffered so much pain, I see why ISIS finds it
easy to recruit young men. They have felt pain, anguish, and loss and with so
little justice being done to address those past grievances they are seeking it
via militant fanaticism.
Unfortunately some media outlets chose to use their freedom
of expression to insult Islam. The Danish cartoons were derogatory as well as
those of Charlie Hebdo. I believe that the manner in which journalists lost
their lives during that attack in France was quite unfortunate. I believe you
share those sentiments too. However, I believe it was wrong to demean Islam
with such cartoons. I wouldn't like if it Jesus was depicted in that way.I sense your frustration with the world is building as you saw the widespread support for 'Je suis Charlie' but little support for the respect of Islam.
Our world is now a global village they say. We, Africans are
embracing a lot of Western culture but some western culture has not been unanimously accepted. Immorality, sex, alcohol and rising toleration of the LGBTs has not
entirely gained popularity in Africa; we cling to some of our values. I believe
you do as well. After learning that in Islam there is no separation between
religion and state, I understand why you are so resistant to Western Influence.
You believe Christianity to be a Western Religion and since
you see don’t believe in the separation of state and religion, you believe that
the US and Europe when they come as missionaries with Christianity, in the
background you believe they come with politics, democracy, capitalism and these
detestable values. I know you hold dear to your values of loyalty, courage,
fear of God, passion for justice, honour and many more. I understand your fear that these values will
be eroded. It has happened in Africa. I see a lot of us trying to borrow from
European culture, we mimic their dressing and have abandoned our African dress
but of late at least Ankara print is gaining more prominence. You are right to
feel scared that you will lose your dressing, your culture amongst many
other things.Your women fear this as well.
I have bought into the the misconceived notion that Islam
undermines the woman. I used to think that the Hijab was a sign of bondage, of
forceful submission to the man but then I learned otherwise. I got to learn
that the revered prophet Muhammad had a wife, her name was Khadijah. She was
considered the ‘mother of believers’. That’s a very lofty title. She must be
respected and be a model for all muslim women to follow. I was stunned to learn
what kind of woman she was.Khadijah was far from the servile, subdued woman
that is often depicted of muslim women.
Before marrying Muhammad, Khadijah was a rich and independent
widow. She had her own business and at one time in his youth Muhammad served as
her employee. When it came to their marriage, she actually took the initiative
and proposed to him!!!! Clearly, she was assertive and independent. The mother of believers must clearly be the
desired type of women her daughters strive to be and I should also mention that
her real daughter, Fatima, was a courageous woman who maintained a
political role of opposition till her death, vocally challenging biased
decisions. Like many other cultures, somewhere down the line, men altered
customs and practices to favour them and subdue women but initially, by looking at Khadijah and
Fatima, women were empowered. In as much as there are cultural practices that burden women in Islam, I shouldn't state Islam as a religion that burdens women 100%. I also got to learn more of this when I discovered the significance of the Hijab and I was quite taken back.
I’ve been so familiar with this bondage narrative of the
Hijab only to discover something totally different. Muslim women by wearing the
hijab communicate the message that they are not cheap and sexually available.
Western culture has encouraged liberal dressing mostly with the emphasis of
depicting women as just sexual objects.
For Muslim women it is a challenge for them to convey their
beauty. They desire to have their beauty manifested in the face and should
spring from inside their personality. Their outward beauty should be reflected
by their character and not sensuality.
Wow. I see that as very modest. Too often women today are
forced by media to be sexy so as to be seen as powerful, they are pressurized
to wear revealing clothes whereas
muslims are not inclined to this perception and use the hijab to
communicate that message. They go against the norm of seducing men with their dressing, instead opting to attract them with their personality, character. I have mad respect for them.
Friend, I have had a very warped understanding of your
religion. I have wrongly thought that since Muhammad was the central figure in
Islam and Jesus is the central figure in our faith; I should hence make
comparisons between them. I have also believed that the Bible and the Qur'an
were also comparable because they are both holy books. These comparisons have been incorrect. I believe that Christ is the eternal, uncreated
word of God while you believe that the Qur'an is the eternal, uncreated word of
God not Muhammad. Hence you equate Christ to the Qur'an and not Muhammad. Who
then is the equivalent of Muhammad and what would the bible compare to. I don’t
have those answers as yet and now i feel compelled to study the Qur'an as
fervently as the bible to get more. I'm
embarrassed I haven't read the Qur'an as much while you have been open-minded to
read the bible. Please bare with me, in time I will read it and get to know
more of your beliefs so that I can bridge the gap between us.
I will do this because I know that God loves you dear muslim.
I believe he cares for muslims because your lineage can be traced back all the
way to Ishmael, son of Abraham (Ibrahim). In the bible it is clearly stated
that God chose to save Ishmael from death and that he was concerned for him,
that he would make him into a nation (Genesis 21:12-20). I know if he was
concerned for the father of the Muslim nation, he must be concerned for his
sons and daughters as well.
Friend, this letter is threatening to become a dossier. It
has exceeded my usual word count. I doubt I will ever write as much. I have
learnt so much and I have so much more to learn. It is my hope that I will gain
a further understanding so that I may communicate the love God has for you in
days to come. For now, It is imperative that while you fast and pray during
Ramadhan that I at least pray for you, if not able to fast. You are under so much pressure to join ISIS
and the like. You have so many grievances that need to be addressed. My prayer
is that God will protect you, bless you and reveal himself to you and correct
past and present injustices.
God be with you.
Asalamu Alaykum!
Yours Sincerely,
Kenneth Minishi.
P.S. To my brother and sister in Christ reading this along
with anyone else, My reference material for this post was The Crescent through the eyes of the Cross by
Dr Nabeel T. Jabbour. Please look for the book and read it, it was pretty
insightful. Other helpful material
include
1. A Muslim’s heart by Dr Edward J. Hoskins
2. Unshackled & Growing: Muslims and Christians on the
Journey to Freedom by Dr Nabeel T Jabbour
3. Why Women convert to Islam by Rosemary Sookhdeo
4. Breaking Through the Barriers: Leading Muslims to Christ
by Rosemary Sookhdeo
5. Unveiled: A Christian Study Guide to Islam by UK: Barnabas
Fund
6. Facing the Muslim Challenge: A Handbook for Christian-
Muslim Apologetics by John Gilchrist.
7. The Challenge of Islam to the Church and Its Mission by
Patrick Sookhdeo
8. http:// www.answering-islam.org
We were called to spread the gospel to all nations in Matthew
28:19, the muslim nation included. Seek first to understand them before you try
to have them understand you.
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