The Monks of Tibhirine had all decided to stay in their African posts despite the risks. In this, it is difficult not to feel that we have a window into the same spirit with which Christ himself remained firm in his decision to go up to Jerusalem near his end, even though he knew what the result would be.
an excellent article, but I must contend with one statement, that Islam is a truly peaceful religion. A simple study of the quran coupled with the hadith will show that muhammed preached peace only when people submitted to his will(read allahs will). He killed raped and pillaged otherwise. these fundamentalists are following true islam. We can engage muslims by helping them confront these realities and work within the framework of Islam to reject the principles that are inconsistent witht the gospel of Jesus christ.
Discuss with a muslim, the nature of martyrdom, murder(killing), love and holiness and you will begin to see what the problem is. see quran 6:151 for ane xception to the commandment , thou shalt not kill, and contrast it with "love your enemies". once we make exceptions we fall back into the pit of excluding "outsiders", and getting rid of them permanently.
There are grave discrepancies between how Christians see martyrdom, and how do Moslems. A Catholic offers his life for the Kingdom of Peace of the Prince of Peace which is Christ. He never takes other innocent (or guilty) lives with him! A Moslem offers his life for himself and for his perceived "jihad of Allah." He thinks that this guarantees him Paradise. He has no compunction to kill scores of innocent bystanders as part of his "offering" to Allah. How can we find common ground? I used to discuss this in my correspondence with the Iranian representative to the UN, Dr. Jawad Zarif, years ago. He conceded that the above is a correct assessment of our differences. But he pointed out that at the root is our different view of justice. Christians martyrs equate justice with rightness, but not in this life (or else they would have to kill every unjust person). Instead they offer themselves to God as victims of justice - they offer their own lives. Moslems martyrs, however, insist that their way of martyrdom does justice and that therefore it is the right way. The moral seems to be, Dr. Zawad and I agreed, that we must both work for justice, in Palestine and elsewhere, and the tensions may get reduced miraculously. As a Christian, I added to this that we must foster common visions of holiness, and pray much, much more. B.J.S.
March 15, 2004 5:44 PM
