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Christianity Today
May 5 2005
Waging Peace on Islam
A missionary veteran of Asia proposes one way to defuse Muslim anger
about the Crusades.
Interview by Stan Guthrie | posted 05/05/2005 09:00 a.m.
Months before the movie Kingdom of Heaven was to be released, critics
lined up to lament how this big-budget film about the Crusades would
set back Muslim-Christian relations, leading to a Muslim or Christian
backlash, depending on whom you read. But it's not as if this movie
is raising an issue long since dead. The question is not if the
Crusades are a live memory for Muslims, but why? And how do
Christians who minister to Muslims deal with this sad historical
fact?
Warren Larson is director of the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies at
Columbia International University, Columbia, South Carolina. An
associate professor of Islam with expertise in Muslim fundamentalism,
the Canadian-born Larson was a church-planting missionary in the
Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, from 1969 to 1991. (The small
church he and his wife worked in remains active in the 99.9 percent
Muslim city of Dera Ghazi Khan.)
Today Larson travels widely in the Muslim world. Stan Guthrie, ct's
senior associate news editor and author of Missions in the Third
Millennium, interviewed him.
The First Crusade began nearly a millennium ago, and yet we often
hear that Muslims think about those terrible events as if they
happened yesterday. Why?
It's a perception of ongoing Western imperialism. There's a long
history of unsuccessful encounters. The Crusades are in there, but
also the fact that the Muslims were booted out of Spain in 1492.
That's also very bitter for them. And then there was colonialism.
Nine-tenths of the Muslim world was under colonialism. They connect
all this~Wincluding Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and other things going on
in the Middle East.
Why do so many Muslims continue to see the West as a Christian empire
when, in fact, it's become highly secularized and pluralistic in
recent decades?
One reason is that there are a lot of Christians here in the West.
Muslims are convinced that evangelical Christians won the vote for
George W. Bush and that America is quite Christian. Those
perceptions, of course, are only partly true. One would hope
[Muslims] would understand that the West is post-Christian, but in
many ways, it hasn't quite hit them yet.
When we were living in Pakistan, they felt the things that went on in
America~Wthe immorality, the immodesty, the drinking~Wwere sanctioned
by Christianity.
Sometimes evangelicals in North America, particularly in the United
States, say things that are not wise. They're not helping
Muslim-Christian relations. In some cases, they have demonized Islam
and denigrated the prophet [Muhammad]. They've done it publicly. This
news travels far and wide, and Muslims print it in their newspapers.
That keeps some of the feeling alive.
Can't we just explain to Muslims the concept of free speech and the
open exchange of ideas?
Yes, but saying that Muhammad was a demonized pedophile doesn't seem
accurate or fair. Nor is it wise. We have a free press, but we have
to use it with discretion.
How do negative Muslim perceptions affect Christian missionaries and
local Christians at street level?
In some areas of Pakistan, Islam has been radicalized, and
anti-Americanism is higher today than when I was there. Partly as a
result, the 500 missionaries who were there have now been reduced to
about 100.
Christians have suffered. There have been quite a few attacks in
places such as Pakistan. Churches have been burned. Schools have been
attacked. Muslim converts [to Christianity], in particular, have
suffered and feel quite vulnerable. When I was in Ethiopia recently,
the fellow who did my translating was a Somali. He was part of a
group of believers, formerly Muslims, who came out of Somalia in 1994
when the U.S. military failed in Mogadishu. Islamists hunted down and
killed 14 members of his group. He got out of there by the skin of
his teeth.
How should local Christians and missionaries respond to these
historically negative associations with the Crusades in the minds of
Muslims?
I think an apology is in order. But having said that, I think we have
to hold Muslims accountable, too. They might forget or not be aware
that, starting in 1915, Turks killed more than a million and a half
Armenian Christians. There have been unsuccessful encounters between
Muslims and Christians for nearly the last 1,500 years, but [this
history is] not all the fault of the West and Christians. Muslims
have also done wrong.
Wouldn't you say that Christians have apologized because they
recognized that they did not live up to the ideals of their faith,
such as turning the other cheek? A lot of Muslims might think,
however, that the Islamic doctrine of jihad justifies certain violent
actions. Thus, they may not be so willing to apologize.
That's true. Islam doesn't teach you to forgive your enemies. But,
for the sake of truth, we need to confront them. We can do it
lovingly, but we need to do it.
When you forgive Muslims, they recognize the difference. They say,
"We don't forgive anybody, but now we see that you're different." On
November 20, 1979, when the holy Kaaba in Mecca was taken over by
unnamed insurgents, we were living in Dera Ghazi Khan. The rumor went
out, thanks to Ayatollah Khomeini, that it was the work of Americans
and Jews. When the false rumor reached our city, a mob formed and
attacked us at our house and burned our jeeps, burned our literature,
smashed furniture, and could have killed us, but for the grace of
God.
During this time, the American embassy was burned to the ground in
Islamabad. A few days later, the news came out that [the perpetrators
at the Kaaba were] not Americans and Jews, but Saudis. The police and
the military in our city rescued us and grabbed a few of the rioters
and put them in prison.
We went to them and said, "We forgive you. We're not going to lodge a
case against you." Then, neighbors, some of the people who knew me
well, embraced me.
They said, "Mr. Larson, we now know the difference between you and
us. We do not forgive our enemies. When there's trouble between us,
Sunnis and Shiites, we fight and burn one another's shops. But you
have forgiven us."
That was a great help, because it furthered our cause.
I said, "We're just doing what Jesus taught us to do."
Do you see that as a model for future interactions?
I sure do. I think it's very much waging peace on Islam rather than
taking a militant stance as Christians. It's a kind of spirit. It's
doing mission in the light of the Cross, or in the shadow of the
Cross. It's a spirit of reconciliation, and it certainly does help.
And Muslims respond. They do.
Seeing Christ on the Cross forgive his enemies in The Passion of the
Christ was really quite powerful for Muslims. They may have gone to
see the movie with wrong motives, but the fact that he forgave his
enemies from the Cross seemed to touch them. Many, many Muslims went
to see this movie. It was very powerful.
Do you expect Kingdom of Heaven to have an effect on Christian-Muslim
relations?
I don't know. I hope it doesn't hinder them, because there's enough
already out there to worsen conditions.
May 5 2005
Waging Peace on Islam
A missionary veteran of Asia proposes one way to defuse Muslim anger
about the Crusades.
Interview by Stan Guthrie | posted 05/05/2005 09:00 a.m.
Months before the movie Kingdom of Heaven was to be released, critics
lined up to lament how this big-budget film about the Crusades would
set back Muslim-Christian relations, leading to a Muslim or Christian
backlash, depending on whom you read. But it's not as if this movie
is raising an issue long since dead. The question is not if the
Crusades are a live memory for Muslims, but why? And how do
Christians who minister to Muslims deal with this sad historical
fact?
Warren Larson is director of the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies at
Columbia International University, Columbia, South Carolina. An
associate professor of Islam with expertise in Muslim fundamentalism,
the Canadian-born Larson was a church-planting missionary in the
Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, from 1969 to 1991. (The small
church he and his wife worked in remains active in the 99.9 percent
Muslim city of Dera Ghazi Khan.)
Today Larson travels widely in the Muslim world. Stan Guthrie, ct's
senior associate news editor and author of Missions in the Third
Millennium, interviewed him.
The First Crusade began nearly a millennium ago, and yet we often
hear that Muslims think about those terrible events as if they
happened yesterday. Why?
It's a perception of ongoing Western imperialism. There's a long
history of unsuccessful encounters. The Crusades are in there, but
also the fact that the Muslims were booted out of Spain in 1492.
That's also very bitter for them. And then there was colonialism.
Nine-tenths of the Muslim world was under colonialism. They connect
all this~Wincluding Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and other things going on
in the Middle East.
Why do so many Muslims continue to see the West as a Christian empire
when, in fact, it's become highly secularized and pluralistic in
recent decades?
One reason is that there are a lot of Christians here in the West.
Muslims are convinced that evangelical Christians won the vote for
George W. Bush and that America is quite Christian. Those
perceptions, of course, are only partly true. One would hope
[Muslims] would understand that the West is post-Christian, but in
many ways, it hasn't quite hit them yet.
When we were living in Pakistan, they felt the things that went on in
America~Wthe immorality, the immodesty, the drinking~Wwere sanctioned
by Christianity.
Sometimes evangelicals in North America, particularly in the United
States, say things that are not wise. They're not helping
Muslim-Christian relations. In some cases, they have demonized Islam
and denigrated the prophet [Muhammad]. They've done it publicly. This
news travels far and wide, and Muslims print it in their newspapers.
That keeps some of the feeling alive.
Can't we just explain to Muslims the concept of free speech and the
open exchange of ideas?
Yes, but saying that Muhammad was a demonized pedophile doesn't seem
accurate or fair. Nor is it wise. We have a free press, but we have
to use it with discretion.
How do negative Muslim perceptions affect Christian missionaries and
local Christians at street level?
In some areas of Pakistan, Islam has been radicalized, and
anti-Americanism is higher today than when I was there. Partly as a
result, the 500 missionaries who were there have now been reduced to
about 100.
Christians have suffered. There have been quite a few attacks in
places such as Pakistan. Churches have been burned. Schools have been
attacked. Muslim converts [to Christianity], in particular, have
suffered and feel quite vulnerable. When I was in Ethiopia recently,
the fellow who did my translating was a Somali. He was part of a
group of believers, formerly Muslims, who came out of Somalia in 1994
when the U.S. military failed in Mogadishu. Islamists hunted down and
killed 14 members of his group. He got out of there by the skin of
his teeth.
How should local Christians and missionaries respond to these
historically negative associations with the Crusades in the minds of
Muslims?
I think an apology is in order. But having said that, I think we have
to hold Muslims accountable, too. They might forget or not be aware
that, starting in 1915, Turks killed more than a million and a half
Armenian Christians. There have been unsuccessful encounters between
Muslims and Christians for nearly the last 1,500 years, but [this
history is] not all the fault of the West and Christians. Muslims
have also done wrong.
Wouldn't you say that Christians have apologized because they
recognized that they did not live up to the ideals of their faith,
such as turning the other cheek? A lot of Muslims might think,
however, that the Islamic doctrine of jihad justifies certain violent
actions. Thus, they may not be so willing to apologize.
That's true. Islam doesn't teach you to forgive your enemies. But,
for the sake of truth, we need to confront them. We can do it
lovingly, but we need to do it.
When you forgive Muslims, they recognize the difference. They say,
"We don't forgive anybody, but now we see that you're different." On
November 20, 1979, when the holy Kaaba in Mecca was taken over by
unnamed insurgents, we were living in Dera Ghazi Khan. The rumor went
out, thanks to Ayatollah Khomeini, that it was the work of Americans
and Jews. When the false rumor reached our city, a mob formed and
attacked us at our house and burned our jeeps, burned our literature,
smashed furniture, and could have killed us, but for the grace of
God.
During this time, the American embassy was burned to the ground in
Islamabad. A few days later, the news came out that [the perpetrators
at the Kaaba were] not Americans and Jews, but Saudis. The police and
the military in our city rescued us and grabbed a few of the rioters
and put them in prison.
We went to them and said, "We forgive you. We're not going to lodge a
case against you." Then, neighbors, some of the people who knew me
well, embraced me.
They said, "Mr. Larson, we now know the difference between you and
us. We do not forgive our enemies. When there's trouble between us,
Sunnis and Shiites, we fight and burn one another's shops. But you
have forgiven us."
That was a great help, because it furthered our cause.
I said, "We're just doing what Jesus taught us to do."
Do you see that as a model for future interactions?
I sure do. I think it's very much waging peace on Islam rather than
taking a militant stance as Christians. It's a kind of spirit. It's
doing mission in the light of the Cross, or in the shadow of the
Cross. It's a spirit of reconciliation, and it certainly does help.
And Muslims respond. They do.
Seeing Christ on the Cross forgive his enemies in The Passion of the
Christ was really quite powerful for Muslims. They may have gone to
see the movie with wrong motives, but the fact that he forgave his
enemies from the Cross seemed to touch them. Many, many Muslims went
to see this movie. It was very powerful.
Do you expect Kingdom of Heaven to have an effect on Christian-Muslim
relations?
I don't know. I hope it doesn't hinder them, because there's enough
already out there to worsen conditions.