President Barack Obama should be applauded for his risky””and lonely””decision to take out Osama bin Laden. But in announcing bin Laden’s demise, the president fudged a vital fact. Echoing George W. Bush, he insisted that al Qaeda’s icon “was not a Muslim leader.”
But this is untrue. Bin Laden and his followers represent a real interpretation of Islam that begs to be challenged relentlessly and visibly. Why does this happen so rarely?
“Moderate” Muslims are part of the problem. As Martin Luther King Jr. taught many white Americans, in times of moral crisis, moderation cements the status quo. Today, what Islam needs is not more “moderates” but more self-conscious “reformists.” It is reformists who will bring to my faith the debate, dissent and reinterpretation that have carried Judaism and Christianity into the modern world.
Why don’t more Muslims challenge them? Because they could be killed for speaking against them?
Because they agree with the ends if not the means?
“It is reformists who will bring to my faith the debate, dissent and reinterpretation that have carried Judaism and Christianity into the modern world.”
Like Reformed Judaism and the reinterpreters of episcopalianism?
God has provided a real alternative to Muslims who would dispute Bin Laden and his follower’s interpretation of Islam, it is Christianity.
Our fault as Christians is that we do not readily offer the benefits of our Christian faith to Muslims because we are so afraid to be labeled as intolerant, when it truth it is the height of intolerance to assume that Muslims cannot accept the Christian faith and all of the benefits thereof.
If Christians want to be truly tolerant we should unashamedly spread the Gospel to Muslims and give them the opportunity to decide for themselves what religion they believe.
Islamic terrorists and violent haters of Jews and Christians are able to operate effectively in the Islamic world because it provides a deep and wide friendly sea for such evil to swim in.
The promotion of the ‘three Abrahamic religions’ and ‘three great monotheistic religions’ myths are also responsible.
The Catholic church catechism also has muddied the waters with its rather syncretistic section 841 that affirms and validates Islam: “The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.â€
Remember what John the Baptist told his fellow Jews about being children of Abraham (Luke 3:8) and what Jesus said about Abraham’s seed in John chapter 8 and what Paul said about this to the Galatians (3:29).
And remember the warning of Jesus about violence against those who disagree with us. (Luke 9:55)