Question:  Dear Greg,

            In reading your PT Commentary for Jan/Feb 2002 you say “…we know that the majority of Muslims and …Arabs are peace-loving.”

            Greg, consider this: wherever they are in the majority, we Christians are killed and for centuries they have killed their own for converting to Jesus.  Greg, this is a huge difference.

            So, my thought is for you to re-think this.

            Patrick

Answer:  Dear Patrick,

            Thank you for clarifying, and for the specific concerns you have with what I have written.  Like you and many other Americans—Christian and non-Christian—I have become far more interested in Islam since September 11.  I too have read and researched a great deal, as well as had personal discussions with Christians and Moslems.

            On the one hand I have heard some Americans—Christians and non-Christian—who fulminate that all Moslems want to kill Americans.  I reject such statements as without foundation, inadequate, and perhaps even dangerous.  Over the course of the last 30 years I have come to know many other Islamic friends.  During that time I have traveled in the Middle East and have gained some firsthand insight/knowledge of Arab/Islam culture and religion.  Therefore I recognize many reactionary comments as being ill-advised and unfounded, way off-base, patriotic knee-jerk reactions that have little to do with truth or Truth incarnate.  I believe such voices should not show their ignorance and incite feelings of others with rhetoric that is flawed, both in secular fact and biblical proclamation.

            On the other hand, I do know that the Islamic world has wrestled with its stance and view of Christianity and Christians over the years, and that the Koran has had many interpreters (as indeed, there are many interpreters of the Bible).  I am aware that the relationship between Moslems and Christians is colored by the reality of the past—in their view the bloodletting of the Crusades, and in Christians’ views the events that led up to the Crusades.  So yes, there have been anti-Christian calls for many centuries amongst Islam, but the majority view of Islam for many years has been to peacefully co-exist with other religions, including Christians.

            It is evident now that a new school of thought has been gaining in its influence, and that it has infiltrated Islam where it is weakest—among the masses who are poor and cannot afford formal education.  Heretofore, Islamic thought has been primarily “controlled” by those who were schooled in the variety of ways that the Koran can be open only to a select few whose families could afford such an education.  Now, however, we see a new revolutionary breed, something that has in fact been going on for several decades at the very least, but its fruit is now evident to all of us.

            Schools for poor are called “madrassah” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and they are little more than the memorization of the Koran, by rote, with a volatile mixture of fiery politics thrown in.  The literal view of words and phrases is stressed, allowing no or little room for symbolism and metaphor (also a common mistake people make in understanding the Bible).  This results in the mentality and behavior we know from the Taliban.  So Islamic education, or better said, education within predominately poor Islamic countries, is an important key in understanding this new militancy coming from Islam.

            It remains, however, that many educated leaders within Islam believe the concept of jihad includes the idea of overcoming human passion so that the human achieves a higher moral position and the consequent need that violence is not inflicted on others.  This is not something that we hear from self-proclaimed bully pulpit Islamic experts, some of whom dole out such rhetoric in the name of Jesus.  Such educated Moslems believe (they are documented as saying so, writing and believing such views for many years before September 11) that Islam means to be kind and compassionate, and would never agree with the Taliban treatment of women and minorities, much less the terrorism fostered against the United States.

            It is true that these voices are losing influence within Islam—as the poor and uneducated are being manipulated by the likes of bin Laden.  Thus a minority who have been and are rightly classified as fanatics are threatening, in some places, to become the majority.

            Therefore, I stand by the general idea of what I expressed—that today the majority of Arabs and Moslems are peace loving.  What is that majority?  I don’t know exactly, but from what I understand it is above 51%, which is all that is necessary to make my statement true.

            It is not an easy or simple picture to understand, so while I generally agree with Chuck Colson, I very much agree with the wisdom of President Bush in this regard, and disavow as un-Christian other views, some of which are voiced in the name of Jesus Christ.  Hope that clarifies things for you.  Thanks for your interest.  May God bless you.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht