History displays a variety of responses from Christians against Muslims, ranging “from friendly to hostile, from condescending to fearful, from calls for crusade to plans for alliance” (Tolan 2000:xix). For centuries these attitudes impeded Western understandings of Islam.
A George-Barna poll recently noted that American Christians are more likely than average Americans to hold hostile attitudes toward their enemies and approve of violence, even torture (Boyd 2011: podcast). Western orientations about Muslims is not a recent phenomenon sparked by radical terrorism, but rather a historically consistent narrative surrounding Islam’s beginnings. Phillip Jenkins writes:
. . . the long-term prognosis for interfaith relations is not good. This does not mean that either religion is of itself violent or intolerant, but both have potent traditions of seeking to implement their views through political action: the two sisters are simply too much alike to live side by side. (Jenkins 2002:168-9)
As global civilization continues to develop, understanding between Christians & Muslims is essential. Dr. Sidney Griffith writes, “It is important to take cognizance of the seldom acknowledged fact that after the consolidation of the Islamic conquest and the consequent withdrawal of “Roman”/“Byzantine” forces from the Fertile Crescent in the first half of the seventh century, perhaps 50 percent of the world’s confessing Christians from the mid-seventh to the end of the eleventh centuries found themselves living under Muslim rule.” (Griffith 2010:11).
The Western world's knowledge of Islam is essentially null during its first four centuries. Peter the Venerable visited Spain in 1142 with the intention to undergo “more precise studies of the sources of Islam” (Kung 2007:9). The following year, Robert of Ketton completed the first English translation of the Qur’an. Despite this translation, its publication did not occur for another four centuries.
Had European Christians read the Qur’an they may have been surprised at how much in
common the two faiths shared with one another. The Qur’an repeats a collection of various Christian traditions held sacred throughout the world in the seventh century. Is it possible that the Qur’an’s editors sought to unify a fractured Arab-Christian & Arab-Jewish community under the newly formalized Arabic empire of the seventh-century?
There are over 90 occurrences of Jesus within the Qur’an. Is it likely that Western Christian interactions with Muslims through the Crusades fostered an exegesis of the Qur’an which began to take an increasingly negative stance on Christianity? The Qur’an could be appropriately exegeted to confirm both Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. However, it is almost universally believed within Islam that Jesus did not die on the cross. Could this influence have originated in Crusade’s adoption of the Cross as symbol for military conquest?
While Thomas Aquinas was familiar with Islam’s philosophies and confident in his ability to defend Christianity against them, he was interested in neither the Qur’an nor dialoguing with Muslims. (Kung 2007:9) Tensions between Muslims and Christians during the period of the fifteenth through nineteenth century became more political than theological. Notably the Spanish Inquisition put to death or expel many Muslims, Jews and Protestants as a means to secure a more Catholic Spanish national state (McKay 2004:466). Wars in Europe over competing Christian kingdoms led to further alliances with the Ottoman Empire (McKay 2004:631-2). According to McKay, “Ottoman pressure proved an important factor in the official recognition of Lutheran Protestants at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555” (McKay 2004:632).
Early American Colonists became familiar with Islam through reports of Muslim Barbary (Northwestern African/Spanish) pirates kidnapping sailors to use as slaves and convert them to Islam. The threat of losing parishioners to Islam inspired many American pastors to write polemics against Islam declaring the superiority of Christianity in order to motivate faithfulness. Thomas Kidd notes that Cotton Mather wrote several works on the Barbary Captivity writing:
As was Mather’s wont, he penned A Pastoral Letter as if he meant the captives themselves to read it, but the letter was actually meant for readers in New England itself. In it, he promoted Christianity as a superior religion to Islam, and warned the captives to stand faithfully against the ‘Mahometan Tempters.’ Mather demonstrated some knowledge of the Qur’an by citing an English translation to prove that if Muslims read their holy book correctly, they would see that it pointed to Christ as the true Messiah. He cautioned prisoners to realize that their captivity in Africa was temporary, but captivity to sin was much worse and only gave a foretaste of the eternal torment to come in hell. (Kidd 2009:5)
The decline of Barbary pirate activities in the eighteenth century did not reduce pastoral rhetoric against Islam within the West. Enlightenment philosophy stirred up unbelief and doubts regarding the truthfulness of Christianity and Islam provided a common enemy for Christians to rally against as a distraction. The True Nature of Imposture Displayed in the Life of Mahomet by Humphrey Prideaux became one of the most popular books in the period to inform American colonial Protestant Christians about Islam (Kidd 2009:7-8). Kidd states:
Prideaux lamented how many Deists had charged Christianity with imposture, and he meant to hold up Islam as an actual fraught against which Christianity’s legitimacy would become more apparent. . . .Prideaux’s treatment of Muhammad was likely the most influential in eighteenth-century Anglo-America. (Kidd 2009:8-9)
Until we come to grips with our emotions and identify fear as an unhealthy response to threats of the unknown, we are entitled to repeat histories mistakes. Our response and fear of the unknown is what allowed for the terror that exist today. Only education and embrace will deter the terror of tomorrow. Through education we can rid ourselves of false narratives intended to breed fear, hatred and dehumanization. There are Muslims that see Christianity as the closest of all the world’s faiths as friends (Sura 5:82). Equally there existed Christians throughout history who valued the cultural achievements within Islam. May we seek to understand and embrace their example.
Boyd, Greg (Speaker)
2011 Christmas beyond the pattern (Sermon Podcast 12/04/2011) St. Paul, MN: Woodland Hills Church
Griffith, Sidney H.
2010 The Church in the shadow of the mosque. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Jenkins, Phillip
2010 The Church in the shadow of the mosque. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Jenkins, Phillip
2002 The next Christendom: the coming of global Christianity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Kidd, Thomas S.
2009 American Christians and Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Kung, Hans
2007 Islam: past, present and future. Trans. John Bowden. Oxford, England: Oneworld Publications
McKay, John., John Buckler, Bennett D. Hill, Patricia Buckley Ebrey
2004 West and South Asia: The Islamic world powers, CA 1450-1800. A History of world societies 6th ed. (pp. 627-657). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
Tolan, John Victor
2000 Medieval Christian perceptions of Islam. New York, NY: Routledge.
