Christians build relationships, share with Muslims by understanding similarities, differences

Christians and Muslims worship the same God; the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and Allah of the Quran are nothing alike. Muslims support human rights and religious freedom; Muslims practice oppression and want to impose Islamic law on non-Muslims.
   
Which views of Islam — the world’s fastest-growing religion — are right?
   
It all depends, some Muslim leaders and several Baptist university professors with expertise in Islam agreed.
   
“I wish all faith groups could see Islam as it is — without mixing what is happening in Iran with Islam, without confusing what is going on between Palestinians and Israel with real Islam and without viewing what is happening in Lebanon with pure Islam,” said Imam Yusuf Kavakci of the Islamic Association of North Texas in Richardson, Texas.
   
Ron Smith, senior professor of theology at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology, stressed the importance of certain beliefs Christians and Muslims hold in common, such as the belief in one God.
   
Many Christians are surprised to learn Muslims hold Jesus Christ in high regard as a “true prophet” who was virgin-born, able to perform miracles and lived an exemplary life of holiness. However, Muslims categorically deny the deity of Christ — a crucial difference that cannot be minimized, he noted.
   
“There is more in common between Islam and Christianity than is widely recognized, but we are different in some important ways,” he said. “I believe Muslims are badly mistaken about some very important things but not about everything.”
   
Chris van Gorder, an associate professor of religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Christian-Muslim relations, believes an essential starting point for any meaningful dialogue between Christians and Muslims is examining what kind of God their faith reveals.
   
“The basic distinction between Islam and Christianity is a difference in the conception of God’s relational nature. … In Christianity, ‘God is love’ and thus participant. In Islam, ‘God is One’ and thus beyond the limits of finite comprehension. Christianity calls individuals to enter into covenant relationship with God. Islam calls individuals to worshipfully assume a proper place of obedience before God’s will and revelation.”
   
Christians should begin their interaction with Muslims by seeking to understand how Muslims understand God, van Gorder said. “When Christians have not clearly understood the Muslim concept of God, the result has been murky presentations of Christianity.”
   
For instance, apart from the mystical Sufi movement within Islam, most Muslims see the distance between God and humanity as a good thing that defines and maintains creation. So Muslims see as undesirable the offer of a Christian witness who talks about Christ “bridging the gap” between God and sinful humankind and making possible an intimate relationship with God, he noted.
   
Christians should recognize and affirm the common ground they share with Muslims regarding some ethical and moral issues, as well as the belief in one God. But that does not mean Christians should back away from the distinctive claims of their faith, van Gorder emphasized.
   
“Muslims expect Christians to be Christians,” he said. “Christians should not be afraid to do evangelism. Muslims expect Christians to share their faith. It’s a duty of Muslims to share their faith, so they understand that. We have to be who we are.”
   
The key, van Gorder stressed, is speaking Christian truth in love and building genuine friendships with Muslims. “The example of Jesus should be our guide as we approach Muslims. Too often, we focus on labels and categories. Jesus in the Gospels focuses on people — their hurts, their longings and their desires.
   
“We should focus on relationships and compassionate interaction. We are better able to share Jesus with Muslims when we don’t see them as labels but a people for whom Christ died.”