Seven statements with an explanation conducive to a Christian attitude towards our new neighbours

1. ‘Lord, thank you for the Muslims’⤒🔗

In my childhood I often experienced ‘reading services’ in my church. The elder would sometimes read the standard prayers that were found at the back of the service book (Book of Praise) then in use. Therein could also be found a prayer for ‘the mission among Jews, Muhammadians, and heathens’, who ‘live without hope and without Thee in the world’. It is interesting that in this formulation Muslims were placed on the same level as Jews or, at the least, both were differentiated from the heathens. No less remarkable is the fact that they are now no longer mentioned in the set prayers in our present-day church service book. In the Sixties, we prayed for these followers of Muhammad when Muslims were not yet noticeably present in society, Islam was not anymore considered a threat to world peace, nor yet the object of heated discussions. However, now that Muslims are a topic in almost every newspaper, we have lost that standard prayer.

Can we see God’s guidance not only in the presence of hundreds of thousands of Muslims as new neighbours, but also in the disappearance of the aforementioned prayer of intercession? The latter may even be a sign that the Almighty has heard those prayers offered up for Muslims and has answered them.

Did we not plead that they be reached by the gospel? Yet we did not go out to reach them. While their countries became more and more ‘closed’ to missionary work, the Lord made it easy for us: he placed them on our doorstep. Maybe it is now time for a different prayer: ‘Lord, thank you for the Muslims. Amen.’

2. Islam is a religion←⤒🔗

Islam is a ‘religion’, whether or not Allah worshipped by Muslims is the same as the Father of Jesus Christ, for that question would need more space to do it justice. ‘Religion’ is a fairly neutral term derived from the Latin religio, a noun that heathen and Christian scholars have linked to varying verbs. We could translate it as ‘re-reading’, ‘reconsideration’, ‘binding to’, ‘leaving behind’, ‘renewed choice’ or ‘obligation’. However that may be, Islam obligates a repetitive recitation (the melodious recitation of the Quran), binds its followers to the sharia, secludes from all that is outside of ‘the house of Islam’, and commits all to Islam.

It is unrealistic to view Islam as ‘merely’ an ideology. Not because there are not some contemporary Muslim leaders who do indeed propagate such a notion, but because not a single Muslim considers Islam to be just an ideology. Moreover, there are Muslims whose particular Islam is exclusively spiritual. The definitive Muslim does not exist, and it is possible that the Arab ‘Spring’ revolution will bring that to light in a surprising way.

Additionally, the Christian religion also has an ideological dimension, so that Islam cannot be distinguished from Christianity as ‘ideology’ versus ‘religion’. The GPV, a former Reformed political party in The Netherlands, recognized this years ago with their slogan from Deuteronomy 6:18, ‘so that it may go well with you’. Christ-based ethics, politics, philosophy and sociology contain reconstructive building stones for the benefit of the whole of society. We pray daily for the coming of God’s perfect theocracy.

3. Islam is definitely not a step forward←⤒🔗

There is at least one church in Birmingham facing a mosque on which is displayed in giant letters, for all the churchgoers to see, ‘Read the Quran, the Last Testament’. The claim here is that Islam is the perfection of Judaism and Christianity, the perfection of all religions. Muslims maintain a rigid ‘replacement theology’: the law, the prophets, scriptures and gospels, even in their original editions, have all become outdated and superfluous since the revelation of their book.

It is a gigantic misunderstanding.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.John 1:17

What can Muhammad’s preaching add to that? Nothing at all: Islam is definitely, not a step forward.

Islam attacks the heart of the Christian confession of the church of all times. All that ‘Ichthus’ stands for: ‘Jesus Christ, God’s son, Saviour’, is whole-heartedly denied in the sources of Islam. Muhammad’s followers have once more let themselves be fitted with the yoke of slavery, from which God in the Old Testament wished to liberate his people. At best, Islam is a kind of extra Biblical Judaism. This insight should be far more relevant to Christians than the question whether Muslims are necessarily from a backward culture. For centuries the Islamic world towered above the West, both politically and culturally, and for all we know those times might return. Meanwhile, religiously speaking, Islam is not a step forward but a giant step backward.

We should not consider the Muslims’ religion to be more Biblical than it is. We may make friends with Muslims; we must even love them. Yet it is not to the glory of God and his Anointed, nor is it respectful to these Muslim neighbours, to treat them as fantasy friends.

This is a classic mistake made by unreformed dialogue constructions, and it distorts interreligious discussions from the start, sooner or later leading to frustrations on both sides.

4. Islam is what Muslims make of it←⤒🔗

In the above I have tried to paint a picture, and draw a general pattern, from a Christian perspective, reflecting what I have read and heard. It is however a methodological error to try to give a watertight definition of someone else’s religion. A Muslim cannot, need not, and may not tell me what I should believe as a Christian. Likewise, what a Muslim says about Islam is what is valid to him, and I am not in a position to say what ‘Islam’ – let alone ‘true Islam’ – is.

In the Sunday service, we frankly express what we ourselves confess as ‘our catholic and undoubted Christian faith’, but as a Christian I have no concern with ‘Islam’. My concern is with Muslims who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What I have learnt through study and relationships with Muslims is a framework within which I interpret my neighbours’ statements, including his well-meant objections to the Christian confession. I have also learnt to communicate my message better. To me, Islam is not what I have read in books, but what I directly hear Muslims say. I do not take ‘my Islam’ and then go in search of statements that confirm my interpretation.

There is no other way to reach Muslims, to touch their hearts and, where necessary, to debate them. If you are busy fighting fantasy enemies, you are tilting at windmills, and they will strike you on the head. Whoever does not start by listening to the Muslim opposite him cannot have much to say to him.

5. Whoever confesses his faith, need not fear a Muslim←⤒🔗

A non-Muslim professor once suggested that fear of Islam is a matter of ‘unknown, therefore unloved’. He was referring to himself: once afraid of Muslims, yet discovering upon acquaintance that they are not so bad after all.

Among Christians originally from countries that were dominated by Muslims there is great sympathy for the ‘Geert Wilders movement’ (a Dutch right-wing party that is against Islam), and this fact detracts somewhat from that opinion. Even though in their countries of origin these Christians had been ‘living apart, together’ with their Muslim neighbours, they, through all the negative experiences and interaction, do know what they are talking about.

What makes Muslims in Europe so terrifying? Is Islam a threat because of the combination of the number of Muslims and the surmised ideological component of their religion? You could be down to earth and point out the percentage of Muslims, which is no greater than that of Christians in Egypt or Syria; or the fast declining birth figures among the next generations of immigrants; or the often Christian African and East-European immigrants who are equally great in number; or the hopeless (hopeful?) division between Muslims charging each other with heresy. You could take into consideration that the number of members of the joint traditional orthodox-protestant denominations surpasses the number of Muslims, even if we do not count all the evangelical groups and immigrant churches.

There is something going on, certainly. But in so far as we can speak of danger, that could as soon come from non-Muslims, both left- and right-wing groups, from the so-called ‘multi-culti-huggers’ who continually try to ingratiate Muslims by granting them special privileges, as from critics of Islam who try to cast Muslims in a bad light. Both groups give Muslims far too much space.

 Should they ever settle into that space, negative sentiments will be unleashed in society that will especially strike back on themselves, like a ‘boom­erang’. Should the space allocated to them later be restricted, it will cause frustration. Terrorism is usually not a menacing takeover of power, but a symptom of the despair of disillusioned groups or individuals who have come to discover that the expectations created proved to be unrealistic. Lastly, there is no reason whatsoever to be afraid of Muslims whoever joins in the confession on Sunday that Christ is seated at God’s right hand, knows that He reigns. No-one need fear Muslims taking over power, even if Muslims should gain political and social territory.

Jesus rightfully declared:

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.John 16:33

Whoever looks up to his exalted Lord, watches the news in the Christian manner and is afraid of no Muslim.

6. The church does not need to fight Muslims, but should proclaim the gospel←⤒🔗

Church members should be equipped for their task in the world by the church, as should Christian politicians, who in that capacity are obliged to concern themselves with the subject of ‘Islam’. The church as an institution should not be active in politics, but has a different agenda: proclaiming the gospel so that Christians in all offices and positions can be a reflection of Christ in their attitude. The church does not need to fight Muslims, but should proclaim the gospel. It is true that servants of the gospel are also called upon to refute heresies. Knowledge of the religion of Muslims and the biblical exposure thereof are more urgent for today’s church leaders than the refutation of ‘Rome’, within the framework of the missionary charge but no less so in protection of their own members.

Girls with a Muslim boyfriend are prone to fall easily when they have had no thorough religious education. Humanly speaking, Islam’s increasing power is a result of the division of Christ’s church; Islamization of the Middle East is taking place because all the Christians have left; Eastern carpets now decorate our former church buildings because church pews remained empty; and the religious attraction of Islam can grow by dint of the vacuum that came to exist due to the lack of Biblical knowledge.

Yet the negative, the rejection of heresy, is only useful as a complement to a positive message. Our main concern should not be that Muslims are obtaining more influence, but that Christians have not familiarized themselves with the gospel. It is a matter of the direction in which we look. So we could say that the problem of Muslims is not that they follow Islam, but that they do not truly know Jesus. Christians should not therefore be taught to dislike Islam but rather to communicate the gospel in terms that are understandable to Muslims, which is very possible. Muslims have no ‘only comfort in life and in death’ (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1). They live in insecurity until judgment day. We have something wonderful to share with them. Are they are open to that message? In the Netherlands there are possibly more ‘e-migrants’ that exchange the church for the mosque than ‘immigrants’ who place their trust in Jesus. All the while, people in a wide circle around Mecca are coming to the true faith in the face of oppression. Where the ground is most dry, there is thirst for living water. It is said that more Muslims have become Christians during the last fifteen years than in the previous 1500 years. May the Lord of the church give an extra impulse of his Holy Spirit via today’s ‘Arab spring’!

7. Christians love Muslims←⤒🔗

Muslims, what are they to us? I was once asked to replace this question as the title for a lecture as it sounded too negative. Yet I meant it positively. We can reject ‘the Islam’, and also Islam as perhaps adhered to by our friends Ahmed, Aicha, Ali or Asma. Yet we can love Muslims. Even if they are not ‘moderate’ but ‘radical’ Muslims, not mystics but Islamists after a Salafist fashion. Church members should be colour blind when they see ‘sheep without a shepherd’. Not just because we can encounter very nice people even among the people of an evil ideology, but because we ourselves are loved by God. “Glory be to Him who loved us, washed us from all sin and stain!” (Hymn 5, Book of Praise).

Christians love Muslims – not because (and as long as) they are seen as candidate Christians, and friendship evangelisation is seen as the ideal missionary strategy. Christians love because they are followers of Jesus, who welcomed the tax collectors, Zealots and Roman occupiers. Christians do not just tolerate Muslims: they give them space. They do this knowing that Christians are being treated badly in ‘Islamistan’. And they do so not in order to claim that a church must arise in Mecca, but because God welcomes Muslims here. In the event of a persecution of Moroccans, which could happen if a demagogic party gains influence in economically difficult times, Christians must even be prepared, at the risk of reprisals, to help and hide Muslims.

Christians join Muslims, meeting them in real life situations. They accept invitations by Muslims to join in an iftar meal, even if it has an obvious missionary goal. Christians, in their turn, might ask them to come and eat with them: for most immigrants that would be the first time they would eat with Christians and witness the ensuing Bible reading and prayer.

Whoever has never eaten with the Turks has no right to write about Islam. Christians like to talk with Muslims, and about them too ... especially to bring them, name and circumstances, before God’s throne. A Muslim of worth will take such intercession as a show of unexpected love.