Most times I reserve my opinion on War and Terrorism simply becase this has been 'laden' down with so much east west propoganda. I wanted to share a few thoughts to consider...
***I do not understand Arabic naming conventions so forgive me if I get them convoluted.
****I do not want in anyway to propogate any thought or fear that would suggest Osama represents Islam and its true tenets. I am not an Islamic Scholar but would invite a meaningful conversation with any who would teach me some more on Islam.
"The difference between jihad in Islam and extremism is like the earth and the sky "
Sheikh Tantawi
It is time to revisit some common assumptions about Osama Bib Laden and Islam.
Osama Bin Laden will forever be known as the poster boy for terrorism and Islamic radical fundamentalism. I will in no way ever suggest that what was done on Sept 11 what or is being done by terrorists is justifyable but I think what we think of their motivation is needs to be challenged. Are these things being propogated by world views that have allowed their rhetoric and semantics to control their policy and perspectives.
Many people who want vindication for what has happened have classified Bin Laden as an evil christian hating, child brainwashing leader carrying out a war against the infidel of the west [interesting that we think the West is the beacon of Christianity]. Some even think there is a close parallel between Islam's holy war against the West and George Bush's holy war against Islamic terrorism.
This view of the war is founded, however, on a superficial understanding of Bin Laden's rhetoric declaring a religious war of civilizations.
Bin Laden does speak of the world as being divided into a "region of faith" and a "region of infidelity."
QUESTION - Could this 'infidelity' simply be a statement/question that is made by many towards christians? 'What you claim and What you live are two different things and that is intolerable'?
Osama at times defines the clash as one between Muslims and the "crusaders."But the context of Bin Laden's arguments clearly shows that he is not speaking of a religious war between Islam and Christianity.
In the same infamous videotaped remarks in which he talks about these conflicts, he praises Christianity. In one statement, he observes that Islam respects the prophets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam "without distinguishing among them."
According to Islam, Judaism and Christianity are incomplete but genuine revelations. As monotheists, Jews and Christians have historically been entitled to Muslim respect and even protection.
In every Islamic empire, from the Umayyad to the Abbasid to the Ottoman, Jews and Christians were permitted to practice their religion, and in no Muslim regime has it ever been considered legitimate to systematically kill them.
But Sheikh Sayyed Muhammad Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, recently argued the traditional view that "Islam has never been and will never be at war with Christianity."
For bin Laden to declare war against Christianity would divide even the radical Muslim camp.
The influential radical Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has said that Muslims "believe in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Our Islamic faith is not complete without them."Islamic radicals such as bin Laden make their case against America and the West not on the grounds that these cultures are Christian, but on the grounds that they have abandoned true Christianity".
In his May 2006 letter to President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faulted America not for being Christian, but for being intolerably hypocritical. These statements are a reminder that oftimes this is classed as 'persecution' but MAYBE should be classed as a reality check!!! People do not respond to a title of christianity that we so many times hold tightly to.
When bin Laden calls America a crusader state, he means that America is on a vicious international campaign to impose its system of White Middle class, imperialistic meltingpot 'Completely labeled as Xian but not' values on Muslims.
QUESTION - Since when did the white middle class have the corner on Chrsitianity?
In this way, Bin Laden argues that America is hell-bent on destroying the Muslim religion. The rallying cry of Islamic radicalism is that "Islam is under attack." In a 1998 declaration, Bin Laden called on Muslims to "launch attacks against the armies of the American devils" and to kill Americans, whom he identified as the "helpers of Satan."
Maybe there is some truth to that if chrsitians are not showing the real message of the Kingdom but another they are hypocrites and anti-christian and 'helpers of satan.'
QUESTION - If missionaries today who are engaging people in Islam set aside the term Christian - for the sake that it has been identified with a political policy and a western worldview and focused on allowing the essense of Christ come out of them, would there be a concern about proteting their lives and a fear of being a martyr? Yes there is concern and the need to be careful on how to engage nations with the Gospel BUT ...
QUESTION - Do we need to dig our heels into the ground and say We are Christian and stand against Islamic fundamental radicals.
QUESTION - If an Islamic radical had a gun to my head and asked if I was Christian What would I say? Do I answer the way that makes me a martyr? [as that seems to be almost our own passage to sainthood] or do I answer the way that disposes the paradigm of western middle class religious elitism as Xian?
In the words of Jack Bauer - "I am not afraid to die, I just don't want to die senselessly"
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16 comments:
Mark, I'm honestly inspired by that.
I don't know how to respond other than that it has made me really think. Thank you.
Wowsers.
Good thoughts Mark but seriously, how do you come up with this stuff??
M
Crazy kids + no sleep + partial insanity = Marks 'brilliance'
LOL
M
Crazy kids + no sleep + partial insanity = Marks 'brilliance'
LOL
Dude. Somebody hacked on to your blog and changed your color scheme. It makes me want to have a bowl of butterscotch pudding.
Excellent, well spoken and something a lot more people need to hear! Great job Mark.
I think there's a major miscommunication between Western and Muslim culture. We in the west make a distinction between what is "Christian" and what is secular. We understand that American culture is not a Christian culture by definition. Islam, on the other hand, is as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a religion. To them, a cultural expression is a religious expression, and vice versa. So, for example, when a radical Muslim sees the questionable output of hollywood, he assumes that this output is sanctioned by the dominant religion of the nation, which is Christianity. To them religion, government, and culture are one and the same. Thus America, and Christianity, is hypocritical and depraved. It's an interesting worldview. And I think it's the source of quite a bit of anger and conflict.
Dan says "We understand that American culture is not a Christian culture by definition"
I am no so sure if this is an accurate assessment.
Let me ask a question that someone asked me this week "do you think christianity advocates a specific political view?"
mark, I'd like to stab at that answer...
Originally, if you go back to the OT roots, I would answer yes.
Then we saw a shift from God being King, to having a human as a king (because of the desire of the people). Then came the awaiting of Jesus, The King (going back to the way it was before man wanted to be like before) of kings. Now that Jesus has come back, and he said he didn't come back to establish a political reform, one could probably draw the conclusion that government and Christianity are far from eachother. Until you go past Jesus- say up to 300 AD where Christianity was the dominating religion, and thus became the political domineerer.
What that had to do with it... I just realized i don't know, but I'd rather just press forward.
But, looking at the past, we see how Christianity has influenced politics, but not advocated a specific view. My suggestion would be Christianity would have an influence, but not a specific stance. After all, we are first and foremost accountable to God, so what a government is doing really doesn't matter in that sense. But so long as the Government isn't going against our God, then everything is fine. Once the opposite happens, persecution begins, and we see a wave of revolution in Christianity. It happens all the time.
summed up, I'd say Christianity influences politics. Politics influence Christianity. - for good or bad, as we've seen through History.
I'm going at this from a different angle:
When I watched that video, I was struck most by how it was like watching a Christian preaching video. I felt like I was watching a good communicator communicating with his audience. I mean.... they LAUGHED. I've never been in a Muslim setting like that.
I guess I just thought it would be a lot more.... angry.
Mark - thank you. great questions. who are we as believers and how are we identifying ourselves to those who have an entirely different worldview? never mind that sometimes that worldview is more culturally biblical than 'western' worldview, as what is globally perceived as a western religion has its origins in the middle east.
i was talking with a friend last month who lives on the other side of the world in an islamic country. he's recently asked a few of his muslim friends to define christian, and then missionary. now he's back in america and he's asked a few people to define terrorist. the answers he's gotten back bear strikingly similarity to each other. what are the implications for us here? in 1300 years of history we have not built many bridges of communication never mind reconciliatory or peacemaking paths. we have long stories of misunderstandings, manipulations and shame. indicators that dramatic change is likely required.
how do we choose to collectively answer this question of identity to those whose basic assumptions about life are totally different than our own? we do answer it as a community of believers by what we say, more what we do. we must make decisions. what will we know about people beyond ourselves? who's language will we speak? (and i'm not referring to english or arabic!) do we let go of our 'corner' on being 'right' in order to participate in dialog? do we affirm political indicators? how do we express to them who we are in a way they will understand?
who do your eastern neighbours think you are?
Mark - thank you. great questions. who are we as believers and how are we identifying ourselves to those who have an entirely different worldview? never mind that sometimes that worldview is more culturally biblical than 'western' worldview, as what is globally perceived as a western religion has its origins in the middle east.
i was talking with a friend last month who lives on the other side of the world in an islamic country. he's recently asked a few of his muslim friends to define christian, and then missionary. now he's back in america and he's asked a few people to define terrorist. the answers he's gotten back bear strikingly similarity to each other. what are the implications for us here? in 1300 years of history we have not built many bridges of communication never mind reconciliatory or peacemaking paths. we have long stories of misunderstandings, manipulations and shame. indicators that dramatic change is likely required.
how do we choose to collectively answer this question of identity to those whose basic assumptions about life are totally different than our own? we do answer it as a community of believers by what we say, more what we do. we must make decisions. what will we know about people beyond ourselves? who's language will we speak? (and i'm not referring to english or arabic!) do we let go of our 'corner' on being 'right' in order to participate in dialog? do we affirm political indicators? how do we express to them who we are in a way they will understand?
who do your eastern neighbours think you are?
Korrin
Thanks for stopping by... if we embraced moments to sit down with our eastern brothers I think we would be pleasantly suprised. I look forward to those moments. I am sure as you do too.
Mark,
I realize this is a late entry, but I just stopped in to say hi... The reason that there is no adequate answer to your questions about the armed Muslim and his Christian victim is that there has been inadequate research (which led you to the stereotype of an armed Muslim and his Christian victim). Too few true Muslims have ever been in relationship with true Christians. We simply don't have the history of dialogue necessary to guess with any amount of accuracy what will happen when faced with a gun and the question of allegiance. You could be killed for lying, or hypocrisy, or politics, or newsworthiness, just as much as for being a Christian. It doesn't matter.
Tell ya what... I'll actually go over there with my wife and kids and see what I can do to better the situation. I'll let you know in a coupe of years how it turns out. Perhaps a few more flesh and blood followers of Jesus actually living in their neighborhoods will help them to discern the difference between the West and its Christ. Maybe in the future we won't have to theorize so much, because we will have enough real people actually living like Jesus in Islamic countries to be intelligent about our guesswork. We need more goers.
...coming Korinn?
CJ and others...
The purpose of the article was to stir up some thought on the ridiculousness [word?] of our perspective on this ... I look forward and cheer on those who will go and take theory into reality... I will be glad to come visit and you can introduce me to your Islamic friends.
I should digg your post therefore other folks can see it, very useful, I had a tough time finding the results searching on the web, thanks.
- Murk
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