Introduction
Islam and Christianity are religions that can be contracted and compared very favorably. For instance, they both believe in moral living and humanity. However, their theological and ideological teachings put them in two opposing positions that have individual fanatical support.
Christian View of Islam
Different responses are exhibited by Christians in response to the Islamic religion.
First, there is the Roman Catholic approach and the Protestant’s reaction. The Roman Catholic has in recent past collaborated with Islamic states on different occasions, especially on UN conferences. The recent visit to Syria by Pope Benedict the XVI is one of the many attempts to reconcile Islam and Catholicism. However, skepticism still exists among Muslims over the increased ties between the Catholic Church and Israel.
Protestant churches display a different approach that dismisses the Islamic faith. They have studied the Quran in-depth and its consideration of “Jesus” as another prophet equal to Adam, Noah, Abraham, whereas Protestants believe in Jesus being the savior of the world. Protestants dismiss Islam based on its teachings. They believe the death of Jesus on the cross is the focal point of all they believe in. The blatant rejection of the evalengical call to accept Christ as a savior is a slap on the face of Christians.
Some churches, however, view Islam as a religion in its own rights and need independence. An article by James George Jatras, titled The Muslim Advance and American Collaboration, discusses Eastern Orthodoxy being in the frontlines of the struggle between Islam and Christianity. This documentation was initially published in The Christian Activist magazine, an online Eastern Orthodox Christian magazine. This received a furious response from Muslims, particularly under Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which urged the Republican Party leadership to fire him as a policy analyst. The CAIR called for support from different Christian groups.
The catholic league hinted out that their reaction was in return for favor for the support CAIR gave in the fighting of Jesus in the play “corpus Christ” and that the catholic league was also featured in an article sponsored by CAIR in the Washington Post.
Further, ideological differences put these religions two worlds apart.
Whereas Christians believe in salvation, their Muslim counterparts do not hold any assurance of salvation. They do not see the necessity of the death of Jesus to pay for our sins, reasoning that every individual must be answerable to his own acts, that, to them, the punishment that Jesus went through is unjust. Christians believe without God’s grace, we are lost. God’s grace in this context means salvation.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
Christians owe much respect to the name of Jesus, whom they regard as the Christ, whereas Islam accepts the very existence of Jesus as the son of the Virgin Mary but teaches that he was merely another prophet like Abraham, Adam, and Noah as his equals. This creates a negative perception among Christians of Muslims.
The belief by Muslims that Mohammed is the final messenger superior to all previous prophets is indeed very contradictory to Christian teachings. Christianity regards Jesus as the final messenger, and any contrary belief makes one an idol worshiper.
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or anything that is in heaven above, or that is in heaven above or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:3, 4). Christians reflect on teachings of the Muslim faith as UnGodly, and therefore has no basis, and worse is the practices by Islam such as the Jihad war (Recognized among Muslim faithful as the holy war), which is suspicious among Christian believers, as they believe in repentance and God’s intervention at times of crisis.
It is indeed true that these are the world’s top religions, and despite their ideological and theological differences, their collaboration is very important to ensure lasting global peace to avert the calamities that have been experienced in various parts of the world.
The View of the World towards Islam
The world, courtesy of the great Seven (G7) nations, or the west, has tried to pursue a New World Order. Within this context, the world has had different definitions and effects towards the religion of Islam and its Approaches towards the religion of Islam and its Proponents. Today, Islam is the most misunderstood of religions, especially in the West. A religion that, based on its Koranic Verses, stands for tranquility and justice is today shadowed by definitive side shows of war and fanaticism. Today the Muslims World (religious Islam Fraternity) is projected as a threat to the west. The Frankenstein of “Islamic Fundamentalism” is seen in their harmless and innocuous efforts to activate the democratic process and seek self-reliance. In the case of Islam, one end of “fundamentalism is exclusivity: and terror in a religious context. The media, CNN, Al Jazeera, or most local stations will refer to the Middle East incidents as those involving the Shiite, Sunni, Islamic, fundamentalists, or religious Fanatics. The Same labels, however, are deliberately left out in the case of Ireland, Croatia, Serbia, or even Bosnia- Herzegovina.
The world views Islam (and Muslims as such) as intolerant. The Jamat – el – Islami Pakistani article points out that Islam stands for the middle path and that it invites its adherents to avoid extremes. The article by the Muslim secretariat in Pakistan points out that the world treats Islam in a double standard measure. If the illegal and arbitrary occupation of Kuwait was a crime in the case of Iraq on Kuwait, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the Indian occupation of Kashmir, and the Serbian occupation of ‘Bosnia should be treated as a criminal. There is a hypocritical manner of apportioning Justice; In most regions of the world, the resort to violence by Muslims is censured, however not so had to notice that violence resorted to by Israeli civilians, occupation forces, or anti-Muslim riots in India and over the Indian atrocities in Kashmir are not censured. The world has also ignored the injustices that occur against the Islamic nation. The example of Turkish Cyprians being discriminated denied their rights, persecuted, and eliminated is a case in point that occurred right under the guarantor of power role of the UK.
The world views Islamists as a possible threat to the world through incursions into Western countries. They are seen as a threat of sabotage of political systems. The deep-seated rights of Muslims to order their individual lives, institutions, and ways in accordance with their own values and ideas are seen as opposition to modernization and progress. The culture and values of Islam, like veiling the Hijab, are seen as uncivilized, so it is not surprising to see France ban the use of the veil in schools. The Western culture has been overtly and covertly imposed on Islam (Muslims) to supplant them from the cultural basics.
Islam is allegedly anti-democratic. The Islamic bearing that a Muslim is one who accepts the divine law as the source of guidance for his individual and collective existence is seen as the basis for anti-democracy. The khilafat, as it is referred to in the Koran, is seen to be the very absence of flexibility and change with the Muslim structure. Continuously the Muslim world has afforded to reject certain choices in development that have to do with the West. Today most Middle East nations predominantly Islamic have failed to honor the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human rights, and even trashed invitations to join the World Trade Organization. The world, therefore, views them as dissenters to order and as a different paradigm.
For centuries the tug of war between Christianity and Islam has carried on. The influence of the West has caused great permeation of Christianity the world over. Christians, the most populous religion following, are still in constant turmoil with Muslims viewing Muslims as crusaders (read Jihadists) out convert them into Islam by defying their (Christians) dictates.
Executive Summary
There is a need for an open perspective that will bridge the Christian, Muslim, and the world. The founders of the two faiths Jesus and Mohammad, based their teachings on the elements of Justice, peace, and “brotherly existence.” That is the only philosophy that both religions can turn to and hence keep the world peaceful.
References
- Tomoki M., The Invention of World religious, Chicago university press 2005 (USA).
- Austin cline, Ideology versus Religion, Chicago university press, 2001 (USA)
- Christopher H., Jefferson versus the Muslim pirates. City journal 2007 (USA)
- Yakub M., Introduction to religious Philosophy Morital Banarsdass publishers 1971 (USA)
- Adrian W., Noble in Wisdom, Infinite in faculty, Themes and variations in Kants moral and Religious philosophy, Routledge press 2003 (USA)