Can a Muslim be God’s Voice to an Evangelical Christian?

I once lived with a Muslim family for two years. It was extremely challenging, but not in the ways I expected it would be.

I lived with the Muslim family in their house near the center square of the capital city of Albania. There were nine of us in a relatively small space. Added to the cramped conditions was the fact that running water flowed only a few hours a day, electricity was intermittent, and food variety was limited. But I found none of this too difficult, even though Albania (Muslim, Balkan, post-Communist, poor, Mediterranean) could not have been more jarring to my affluent, American, “white,” Baptist upbringing.

What I found most challenging was this: They loved me. They loved me not only in a pat-you-on-the-back landlord sort of way. My Muslim family loved me like a son, which included caring for me as their spiritual responsibility.

This took particular force in the person of my hunched and humming Albanian grandmother. She was the first face I saw each morning, and at night she would lovingly touch my shoulder and say “sweet sleep.” She also pastored me. She encouraged me when I was low, blessed me as I went about my work (which, by the way, was Christian missionary work) and she told me about God’s love for me. She challenged my Christian training and my American pragmatism. She was a dawdling, superstitious Muslim. How could I allow her to be God’s voice in my life?

Tough questions

What am I to do? Seriously.

How do I understand all the folks who cross my path and don’t fit my theological categories? As a devout Christian, what am I supposed to do with the non-Christians I have known who are kinder than most Christians, purer than most Christians, and seemingly more connected to God than most Christians? Even more troubling, what am I to do with religious outsiders who are spiritually wise and speak that wisdom into my life? Am I allowed to accept their wisdom or am I required to sit in perpetual suspicion?

FULL ARTICLE FROM LEADERSHIP

Islam teaches reverence for Jesus and other biblical prophets

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Many Christians and other non-Muslims are surprised to learn that the teachings of Islam include information about Jesus.

Zakiyyah Shakoor, a former teacher and an active member of the Huntsville Islamic Center, 1645 Sparkman Drive in Huntsville, explains where these teachings come from.

While Christians, by definition, also attribute to Jesus co-divinity with God as part of the Trinity, Zakiyyah’s simple explanation helps show that both Christians and Muslims can celebrate together the message about God that Jesus was sent to bear.

ur thanks to Zakiyyah and other religious leaders in Huntsville for contributing these LifePoints essays from time to time to The Huntsville Times.

Note: In the passage of the Quran, below, there are words in parentheses. Those kinds of designations are to be found in any translation of the Quran from the Arabic believed by Muslims to have been given by the angel Gabriel directly to the Prophet Muhammad. Those phrases clearly mark the translator’s additional words for clarification from the literal Arabic and remind those reading in translation of how carefully Quranic translators aim for precision. 

In her essay, Zakiyyah also uses the traditional Muslim blessings added after using the name of any of the Muslim prophets, “peace be upon him,” as a sign of reverence and thanksgiving for their witness.

FULL ARTICLE FROM AL.COM (ALABAMA)

Does Islam Need Good PR?

Does Islam Need Good PR? My immediate answer is ‘No’. I also think that it is not for me, as a Christian, even if somewhat ‘expert’, to say what Islam needs, I will leave that to Muslim friends and colleagues. However, there are few areas that I would like to explore:

• Islam, and Muslims, have many good things to say which are often not heard
• There is so much focus on Islam that it would be great if there was less media exposure
• What should Christians be saying about Islam?
• How can we generate the right kind of PR?

FULL ARTICLE FROM ONISLAM.NET

Wholly American, Wholly Muslim

All across this country—and the world, in fact—there are numerous people who seek to define Islam and Muslims in a specific and (frequently) negative manner. Islamophobes have, in fact, staked their careers on this task. There are also criminals, so-called Muslims, acting in the name of Islam in such a wrong way that provides a “definition” of the religion wholly inconsistent with its principles. The actions of these criminals are just that: criminal and twisted and do not reflect the truth. Islamophobes claim that these deviants are, in fact, only representing the truth, and any claim to the contrary is a “lie.”

Hence the importance of Muslim voices owning their faith. These voices define Islam; they represent the truth. This is why the “I Speak For Myself” series is so important. Starting with the first book, I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim (White Cloud Press, 2011), American Muslim women got the chance to tell the world their story, in their own words. Now, it is the brothers’ turn with All American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, edited by Wajahat Ali (a Patheos contributor and former blogger) and Zahra T. Suratwala.

FULL ARTICLE FROM PATHEOS.COM

Muslims and Christians Gather Together at Texas Megachurch

KELLER — Hoping to nurture good will between two major faiths, Christians and Muslims will mingle Sunday at a Texas barbecue at a Keller church.

The Rev. Bob Roberts, pastor of the 3,000-member NorthWood Church, said the gathering is intended to create friendships and recruit Muslims and Christians who will work together on a series of community projects.

“We’ve got a big Muslim issue in America,” Roberts said. “There are 2 billion Christians in the world and 1.5 billion Muslims. If we don’t learn how to get along, we are going to have a very sick world.”

Those attending will be served beef slaughtered according to Islamic rules.

It’s a follow-up to a similar service at NorthWood — attended by 1,500 Muslims and 1,000 Christians — shortly after the 10th anniversary of 9-11.

That service, labeled “repulsive” by a political activist, was highly emotional.

At one point, Roberts told the Muslims, “We love you.” After a standing ovation, a Muslim in the audience stood and replied to Roberts, “We love you too.”

At Sunday’s event, Muslims and Christians will sign up to work together on several volunteer projects, including painting and remodeling homes and renovating a Haltom City baseball field. Also, women will take part in cooking clubs, sharing recipes from their different cultures.

Among the speakers will be U.S. Rep. Kay Granger; former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, director of the Center for Global Strategies in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Azhar Azeez, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America in Plainfield, Ind.

FULL ARTICLE FROM FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM 

 

Christians and Muslims Worked Together on Christmas Food Drive

The London Free Press reports that Larcerte, the volunteer president of the St. Vincent de Paul conference at the church, reached out to the Muslim mosque for the first time this year in an effort to collaborate on community relief.

“We all want the same things: peace and respect, and I see this as a beginning of working together.”

Members of the mosque were overjoyed to be included in the food drive, said Ali D. Chahbar, who helped organize the partnership.

“To us, the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of brotherly love, and why wouldn’t we want to be a part of it?”

“It is so nice,” he continued. “People are really different. They are nicer and you notice it. I wanted to get a megaphone and shout ‘Can we keep this going all year, people?’ ”

“We are not Christians and don’t celebrate Christmas but we are engulfed by the spirit and . . . any time there’s a jubilant harmonious feeling, whatever creed it is under, we thrive on it,” he concluded.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE INQUISITOR 

In Egypt the Amateurs are in Charge

NEWS ABOUT EGYPT FROM THE REGION

By Rami G. Khouri

The tumultuous road to a stable democratic system of government in Egypt is passing through one of its most decisive stages these days, with most of the main political actors revealing their amateurism more than anything else. This is a hard but necessary learning process, as the main protagonists refuse to accept that hard-line and absolutist positions are inappropriate during this delicate transition.

For all the heartening talk about their shared commitment to democratic pluralism, the dominant Muslim Brotherhood and most of the other leading Egyptian political groups are demonstrating the problems arising from a fast transition from autocracy to democracy, without a transition period in which people and organizations learn how to function in a democratic system. Personality has much to do with this.

The Muslim Brotherhood leaders who have spent much of the last 25 years in and out of jail were catapulted into the presidency without any previous experience in managing national politics. President Mohammad Mursi is revealing his inability to act as the president of all Egyptians and the shepherd of a historic constitutional transition in which basic governance institutions are being built. Unlike Nelson Mandela who spent decades in jail and then showed his compassion, flexibility and statesmanship when he became president of South Africa, Mursi seems focused on pushing through his agenda (presumably also the Brotherhood’s) and is unable at this stage to act as the magnanimous leader of all Egyptians.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE DAILY STAR (LEBANON)

God and Evolution: Easier For Muslims Than Christians?

If you think Christian scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth Miller have a hard time defending their acceptance of evolution from creationists and atheists–you might be tempted to assume it’s probably as difficult for Muslim scientists.

Not necessarily.

Which is not to say that hostility to evolution isn’t widespread in Muslim countries, even where the education levels are rising quickly. American style creationism is making inroads, even in countries like Turkey where the government and education systems are more liberal about science.

So, it was fascinating to hear from evolutionary biologists like Ehab Abouheif, who runs his own lab at McGill, that doing science and practicing the family’s ancestral faith does not prompt any contradiction.

Abouheif and his team made a splash earlier this year with the discovery that many species of ants retain dormant genes that can be reactivated to generate an entire caste of ‘super-soldiers.’ [His team's paper was published in the January 6 2012 issue of Science.]

FULL ARTICLE FROM FORBES

Islamic Prayers in Park Disturbed by “Christian” Protesters

CHARLOTTE, N.C. As several hundred Muslims gathered for a traditional Jumah prayer Friday afternoon in Marshall Park, members of a Christian group carried signs – “Jesus is the Way” and “Islam is a Lie” – and played Christian music that could be heard throughout the park.

Despite the protest, the event unfolded peacefully as Muslim men and women, many wearing long robes and turbans or head scarves, sat on rugs on the grass or in folding chairs, facing toward Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.

Rev. Phillip “Flip” Benham of Concord-based Operation Save America, an anti-abortion group, and a handful of other protesters kept a respectful distance but occasionally moved closer with their Bibles to speak to some of the Muslims about Christianity.

“We’re glad they’re (the Muslims) here,” Benham said. “If the devil is going to throw a party, it’s imperative that the church of Jesus Christ show up.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER 

 

U.S. still viewed negatively by Muslims in Many Countries

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) – The rise of pro-democracy movements in the Middle East has failed to improve the image of the United States in the region, a poll has determined.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project said a survey conducted prior to the death of Osama bin Laden found that people in key Arab nations and other predominantly Muslim countries still have a negative view of America.

In Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan, views are even more negative than they were a year ago, the poll indicated.

Pew said with the exception of Indonesia, U.S. President Barack Obama remains unpopular in Muslim nations it polled.

People in most of those countries disapprove of the way he has handled calls for political change in the Middle East, Pew said.

The poll found widespread support for democracy in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

FULL ARTICLE FROM UPI