Below is a reply from someone who had read my blog. I tried to respond to the message, but the blogger is not identifiable. So, I decided to post his message here (evidently his name is John).
There can be no dialogue with Islam until Muslims start treating other religions with respect in those countries where they dominate.When Non-Muslims have the freedom to preach, worship, build temples and churches in Islamic countries, we can talk.When Muslims quit preaching hate toward other religions in the mosques, schools and media, we can talk.When Muslims apologize for the hate and violence against Non-Muslims in the Quran and ahadith, we can talk.
Let me point out a few interesting observations I have about this message:
[1] "There can be no dialogue until..." - This is exactly the kind of thing that makes Muslims sincerely doubt the intentions of Christians. Dialogue starts with hearts that are truly open toward each other, and minds that are willing to critically evaluate personal prejudice. The point is valid, never the less, but it is enormously frustrating for me as a Muslim (and ex-Christian!) to have these Christians sentiments in my face from the start as if it were the Christian agenda that were truly important here. It is so easy to respond with something like: "There can be no dialogue until Christians change their Muslim=terrorist equation." Maybe John has never been to the UAE, because here he would find that the Government grants Christian communities land free of charge so that they can build their churches. Just recently, for example, President Vladimir Putin visited Abu Dhabi and attended the ground-breaking ceremony of a Russian Orthodox Church there. Muslim dignitories were there too. I ain't seen no Christians having to worship under cover here or hide for fear of persecution. They worship as openly as Muslims do, provided they do not actively spread among Muslims the unpleasant heresy that they profess.
[2] I'm not sure whether John forgot the awful sin that was committed by George Bush and Tony Blair in their murdering of inccocent Iraqis. The current body count is over 82,000 innocent civilians who were killed by the hate-inspired speech and military action of so-called "Christians". Who is hating whom here? Who is killing whom? Are there Islamic armies in the USA or in the UK that are killing innocent civilians? Check out some of these websites for a sobering view:
Estimates are that around 55% of those killed so brutally by these "peace-loving" Christians are women and children under the age of 12.
John - salaam aleikum warachmatu'llah wabarakatuh! May the peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you!
1 comment:
Good Morning Haaike,
This is a really good post on this subject, and I'm glad that you have presented your side so well.
I absolutely agree that there needs to be respectful and open dialog between Muslims and Christians without preconditions of the type that John argues for. We all worship the same God, the Creator of the Universe. Obviously there are big differences in our theologies and beliefs, and those are important. It should not be necessary for either of us to compromise our beliefs for the sake of an artificial unity. But we should be able to respect each other as fellow believers.
In that spirit, let me address some of the other issues that you raise. I agree, here in the UAE we Christians are more free to worship than in many Muslim countries, and for that I'm grateful. However, that is not quite the same thing as saying we are free here. Maybe you haven't seen Christians worshiping under cover for fear of persecution, but others have. I imagine that if a non-Muslim friend or co-worker asks you questions about Islam, you have no fear of answering them. The same cannot be said for Christians. We have to be careful that we are not accused of trying to spread our "unpleasant heresy", even if we are not the ones who initiated the discussion and are only responding.
As an aside, can I point out that calling each other heretics or infidels or terrorists or other names isn't helpful. I have no problems with you pointing out Christian theology that you disagree with, even in strong terms. But such name calling also makes it easy to question how sincere you are. I agree with you that we need "hearts that are truly open toward each other, and minds that are willing to critically evaluate personal prejudice". Name calling does not really demonstrate such an open heart or mind.
Moreover, even if that were not true, it still doesn't negate the fact that non-Muslims even here in the UAE are not treated like minority religions are in the USA. It is true that the larger Christian denominations (Catholic, Episcopalian, Orthodox, etc) have been able to build churches, but I also know that many of the smaller, less well-known denominations have been turned down and have had to worship in members homes.
I cannot speak for the entire world, but I can tell you from experience living both here and in the US that Muslims in there are much freer there than Christians are here. For that matter, Muslims are freer to worship there than Muslims are here (e.g. There is no government department that monitors sermons in the US). None of this should stop us from dialoging, however.
As to Iraq, I don't think that you can fairly say that the US and UK have "murdered" innocent civilians. Murder requires intent. If you believe that George Bush and Tony Blair sent troops there with the intent of killing civilians, then they are murderers. That doesn't make the war itself right. But we should be accurate in our statements. There have been US servicemen who have committed murder while in Iraq. But that is not the same as saying that the US and UK are led by murderers.
I also think that your question "Who is killing whom?" is very appropriate and almost never answered. If you visit the Iraq Body Count site and examine this month's figures, you will see that as of Tuesday the 23rd, the US forces have caused the death of 87 civilians in October. But there have been 863 reported civilian deaths in October. This means that almost 90% of the civilians that have been killed in October have been killed by fellow Muslims.
Now, you can argue that those Muslim-on-Muslim killings only took place because of the war and the removal of Saddam. But, in a like way, I can just as easily say that those US-on-Muslim killings only took place because of the insurgency.
Sorry for going on so long. Again, I think that we definitely need an open and respectful dialog, and I'm glad that you brought this subject up.
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