Unexpected Evangelism

Today, a student from a Middle Eastern country met me for lunch and proceeded to share the ‘gospel’ of Islam with me. It was an interesting experience as he tried to explain how Judaism, then Christianity, then Islam all contain the same message but in a progression, and that the Quran tells the story of that progression.

Questions for Islam

Having finished “Inside the Jihad” (see this post) and seeing inside the minds and philosophies of al Qaeda and other groups better than I had before, I have several questions for understanding. Given that I have had a number of hits from across the Moslem world, (Egypt, Malaysia, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and a lot from Iran of all places), I thought I’d throw this out to the readership to see what responses come in.

Again, if you have trouble posting a comment, email it to me at scholarredeemer@gmail.com, and I will post it for you. Be sure to explicitly state what if any name you want attributed to you and any URL’s you want to share.

1)      I have heard, and Nasiri (the “Jihad” author) confirmed that music, especially in worship, is tahout and blasphemous. Why? If Allah is the Creator, and music is one of the most beautiful and spiritual of human activities, why is it considered evil by many Moslems?

2)      “Inside the Jihad” often refers to the mujahedeen aversion to anyone they consider an ‘innovator.’ One of the criticisms of Islam is that it is stuck in the tenth century philosophically. I do not understand why innovation and progress are tahout. Granted, the Koran is viewed as the complete and uncorrupted Word of Allah, but why does that mean that humanity must remain in a tenth century mindset? In Christianity, we view Scripture as from God and inerrant in the original manuscripts, yet we see God as infusing His creative spirit into ours when Adam was made a living being, and thus creativity and innovation are hardwired into us and the Bible serves as a framework to guide that innovation while still encouraging it. How and why is that view not consistent with Islam? The history of ancient Arabia, Assyria and Persia are full of amazing advances, and these continued for a while after Mohammed’s life, but they began to die out and the culture seemed to stagnate, and this philosophy that innovation is tahout seems to support this observation. Where did it come from?

3)      Nasiri also explains in his book that what drives the global jihad is a complex mixture of things, but the common thread is that Moslems are upset at the pervasive, invasive presence of the West into the world of Islam. Our use of Moselm lands, influence on their governments, the innovation and individualism we have introduced into their culture, etc. (Of this, the Israel problem is just a small part.) So, my question is, if the West pulled out, and left the Islamic world alone (not isolated them, but let them be as he indicated they want to be), would that end the global jihad? Would al Qaeda be content to stay in the Moslem world and leave us alone? Or, is it too late and we are now in a bitter fight to the death of one culture or the other?

4)      The previous question leads to another series of follow up questions because it isn’t that simple.

a.       There are high populations of Moslems in the Western nations. Are they willing to assimilate into our culture or return home to theirs if we retreat into ours? If not, then there is a real problem of a gross double standard.

b.      Similarly, one of the biggest problems philosophically between the West and Islam is that of human rights. We, generally speaking, seek to protect and fight for folks who are abused, and so it is a problem for us to sit by and not say anything when we see women being oppressed and abused by the practice of sharia law. (I do not yet understand enough about sharia to state categorically that the philosophy and practice are identical.) I readily admit the West has a spotty record recording consistency in fighting for human rights, especially in places like Darfur. That said, we don’t like that it happens, even if we do not intervene. How can we resolve in a reasonable manner the human rights issues we see in practice in Islamic cultures (women’s rights, religious freedom, etc.)?

c.       Finally for today’s post, there is the issue of evangelism. Both Christianity and Islam have their own versions of evangelism—commands to share and expand the spheres of influence of their respective faiths. Setting aside for now the difference in methodology, if our cultures each retreat into our own boundaries as I propose in the second question, how will the internal pressure to evangelize the other culture be dealt with? In the West, we have such diversity of opinion that there is plenty of room for Christian evangelism within our own culture, and there is a surprising amount of diversity within Islam as to who truly follows the faith and who is tahout, so it seems there are issues for each culture to work out before moving into the other’s ‘territory.’ However, given the exclusivity claims of each religion, the cross-evangelistic conflict is inevitable. From an Islamic perspective, how can this be resolved (other than Christianity rolling over and surrendering to Islam)? Can we agree to disagree? Can we agree to peaceful, yet persuasive dialogue? If not, what options are open to our respective viewpoints and the real living human beings that represent those viewpoints?

These are real questions I would love to understand, so I would very much like to hear from a variety of Moslem voices, given that there is a real diversity. It would help if, in your responses, you also shared from which sect or philosophical viewpoint you are coming, as each group seems to believe they are the true voice of Islam. I’m not interested in debating that particular issue, but I do want to understand why each viewpoint interprets things the way they do.

SDG

Christian and Muslim Views on Science and Religion

Tonight, the same group sponsoring last night’s talk sponsored a talk on science and religion. They had a Christian Religious Studies professor from the University of Houston, Dr. Lynn E. Mitchell, and a Turkish Imam from San Antonio, Zubeyir Safak.

                        

Mitchell went first and then Safak. There followed a Q&A with only a couple of questions, most of which were fielded by Mitchell.  Nearly everything discussed has been pretty thoroughly covered in previous posts, particularly the “What is Science?” series a couple of weeks ago, and a few Vibrant Dance topics from last fall.

Mitchell is a clear NOMA supporter, a fact he confirmed to me explicitly afterward, though he seemed to respect the Concordist view I tend to hold, and is appreciative of the work of Hugh Ross and Reasons to Believe. He correctly and at length explained that in spite of much belief to the contrary, there hasn’t really been a war between science and religion, again as covered in the highlighted post earlier in this paragraph. He also echoed Ross by describing how Genesis is unique among creation accounts in that God created, rather than creation creating some pantheon, like the Babylonian {and Greek} mythologies do.

I found Safak a pleasant, likable, soft-spoken gentleman, and very thoughtful. He holds a concordant viewpoint that the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture, when properly interpreted are in complete agreement/harmony. The key difference is that his Book of Scripture is the Qu’ran, not the Bible. I would enjoy sitting down with him over lunch or dinner and discussing theology, philosophy and/or science. One of the more interesting things he touched on was why the Muslim nations, which had an advanced scientific/technological understanding for centuries, stagnated. He stated simply that they stopped watching the sky.

As has been recently popularized by the DVD “The Star of Bethlehem,” The magi were likely Babylonian scholars descended from the school of scholars of which the Old Testament prophet, Daniel, was chief. One of the primary things this school of scholars did was astronomy.

Why did they stop watching the sky? I’m not sure, but I interpreted Safak’s statement as being both literal and figurative, in that for some reason, scholarly pursuits were simply not valued. There is a rather unflattering legend that in A.D. 640 when the Muslims conquered Egypt, they sent word back to the Caliph Omar asking what to do about the documents in the Library of Alexandria. He is reported to have replied, "they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." And thus they were burned. This legend, recorded 300 years or so after the event by a strongly anti-Muslim bishop, must be taken with a rather large grain of salt. Furthermore, it is sad to admit that a few of our brothers and sisters in Christ would agree with the Caliph, viewing any book other than the Bible as being unnecessary.

Before going to the lecture, I had mentioned it to some of my staff, and one commented that he expected that the Islamic view of science and religion would likely be comparable to the other monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity, and he was right. On the one hand that makes a lot of sense, but on the other hand, there has been such a long historical divide in the cultures of Western Judeo-Christianity and Islam, and corresponding difference in scientific development, that I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found was there is a range of view that is very similar to the range among us.

Still the biggest surprise for me was the similarity. I have read precious little of an English translation of the Qu’ran (which must be read in Arabic to insure you’ve gotten the message correctly, I’ve been told), and have heard a fair bit of hearsay regarding the content of it. That small level of exposure has not left me with an expectation that Concordism between the Qu’ran and science would be feasible or significant. That an imam sees it as such is interesting.

During the Q&A, I was the first to raise my hand, and thanked them for coming, saying that as a scientist of faith, it was encouraging to hear theologians speak on the subject in similar terms to my own views, and got the chance to offer up this blog to demonstrate it. (Never pass up an opportunity for free advertising!) The unexpected result of that comment was to draw enough attention to myself, that afterward, three students accosted me with digital voice recorders, saying they were in a journalism class and wanted to interview me for an assignment. Sigh. (What was that about free advertising?) Fortunately, they said it would not appear in the student paper, as I’m not sure I’m ready for that kind of publicity.

Admin note: it appears I have fixed whatever setting was causing the email subscriptions not to go out daily, and I think I have linked the blog to Twitter. Supposedly, when I post, it will send a tweet out to @ScholRed. It didn’t work last night, but maybe it is fixed now???? Stay tuned or tweeted or friended or…

SDG