St Francis Magazine Nr. 4 Vol. III (March 2008) St Francis Magazine is published by Interserve and Arab Vision www.stfrancismagazine.info - www.interserve.org - www.arabvision.org 1 1 THE CHURCHES AND ISLAM IN THE WEST: IGNORANCE AND XENOPHOBIA 1 As a Christian living in the Middle East one becomes easily alarmed by the points of view one hears from the West regarding Islam and Muslims in general. Many go to great extents to explain that Islam is not in itself a terrorist religion, and the well-known trope that terror- ists have “hijacked Islam.” But this argument falls short very quickly when one realizes that the Prophet himself did not hesitate to use and endorse non-defensive violence on several occa- sions to further his vision of God’s sovereignty and dominion over Creation. (One thinks of the dozens of raids on caravans wherein people were killed; one thinks of the Quranic injunc- tion for men to hit their wives if they are inso- lent; one thinks of the slaughter of hundreds of Jews of the Quraiza tribe with his blessing. 2 ) In other words, violence is part of the sunna, the path, the example, of the Prophet. It is, then, profoundly un-Islamic to dismiss one sort of violence—terrorism—as un-Islamic, for it fails to grasp that there is a certain sacramental role for violence within the life of Muhammad and 1 The author intentionally refrains from using the term “Islam - phobia” as one can dislike Islam while loving Muslims in Jesus’ name—something that the media seems to largely ignore. 2 I am glad to provide references in the Quran and the hadiith for these well-known events. the Islam (submission) of the nations to God’s order and will. On the other hand one hears more and more calls for forced expulsions and legal discrimi- nation against Muslims. These voices are, in general, not from the ruling parties—many of which are desirous to get votes from Muslims and investment from the wealthy petro-states of Islamdom. Objections are raised that this would be tantamount to religious discrimina- tion, but the argument can be made that such discrimination would not be against a religion qua religion, but against a political ideology. It is true that Islam claims to comprehend and seamlessly unite religion and politics and eco- nomics at once, so there is some truth to the argument that such discrimination is more an action against a dangerous and hostile political presence than a religious community, but there are still problems. Namely, is there any basis to believe that a society can engage in wholesale discrimination on such a scale and not inflict on itself deep wounds both spiritual and societal? Finally, we have seen clearly that a good number of the mujaahidiin are native born citizens: there is nowhere to expulse them to. If terror attacks in the West continue, which I think they will, and grow more effective and sophisticated, then look for such calls to increase and gain greater traction among the voting masses. APOSTATES OF ISLAM by Abu Daoud