Anticipating the ten year anniversary of 9/11, mega-church pastor Adam Hamilton of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas told his 17,000 member congregation to consider how Jesus would treat Muslims, and show their Muslim neighbors love. His church is one of United Methodism’s largest.
Much of the fear over Islam in America stems from ignorance about what the average Muslim believes, Hamilton said. “There’s a lot of fear in the United States today about Islam,” even more than there was immediately after 9/11, he said. The first step to eliminate fear and show love to Muslims is to recognize “there are many things upon which we do agree.” Hamilton gave six beliefs and practices “that are points of common ground” between the Islam and Christianity, including monotheism, complete surrender to God, frequent prayer, serving the poor, fasting, and visiting the holy land. When interacting with Muslims, Hamilton encouraged congregants to “lead with the similarities” to establish common ground, but to do so without minimizing differences between Islam and Christianity.
Hamilton said that many Americans view Islam as an inherently violent religion because some verses in the Koran command violence against non Muslims, and some Muslims use these verses to justify violent attacks. The often referenced “sword verse” (Surah 9:5), says to “slay the idolaters wherever you find them.” Context is key though, Hamilton explained, as this verse relates to wartime when treaties were signed and then broken. Those who broke treaties had four months of mercy, and afterward, Muhammad’s faithful were commanded to “slay the idolaters.” The following verses command showing mercy “if they repent and establish regular prayers [because] God is oft-forgiving, and most merciful.”
“This is very different from ‘go kill Christians wherever you find them,’” Hamilton said. “It’s incumbent upon us to know the difference” between perceptions of Islam and what the Koran really says. Knowing the difference is especially important, he said, in “conversations with Muslims who might see it differently, to remind them of the context of their own scriptures.” To demonstrate what the average Muslim in America believes, Hamilton interviewed a panel of three Muslims. One panelist, Mahnaz Shabbir in describing her initial reaction to 9/11, said she hoped “it wasn’t someone who called themselves Muslim.” Unfortunately, she said, “there are people who call themselves Muslim who do bad things.” Another panelist, Ahmed El-Sherif, said that “peace indeed is the major ingredient in the Islamic tradition. We’re achieving peace through being in compliance with God’s laws.” Bilal Muhammed, an Imam said that “according to the Koran, the only violence that is acceptable is violence in defense of yourself.”
As the current Muslim population in the US is expected to increase, Hamilton said Christians must welcome Muslims and show them the love of Christ. Hamilton asked “how do we live in community with Muslim people?” He explained that living near Muslims goes beyond merely tolerating them because “Christianity doesn’t call us to coexist with our neighbors, it calls us to love our neighbors.” Further, “love is not a feeling, it’s an action,” and “the best way to transform relationships between human beings where people misunderstand each other and consider each other enemies, is not by the sword, but it’s by showing them love.” Hamilton adapted the parable of the good Samaritan and said Christians should treat Muslims as the Samaritan treated the Jewish traveller left to die along the road. “No matter what the culture,” the parable is “reminding us that the ‘other’ is our neighbor.” How do Christians love Muslims? Hamilton answered: “We listen to them, we stop to take the time to get to know them, we offer help, we care, we bless.”
Showing love to Muslims is also about changing their perception of Christians. Hamilton said the way Christians treat Muslims should “lead Muslims to love their Christian neighbors,” not incite fear, “driving them toward extremism.” To illustrate the Church’s power to lead a community, he told a story of “two different communities who responded very differently to the desire of two Muslim communities to build a mosque.” In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, there were protests, vandalism, and a petition to prevent local Muslims from building a Mosque. In a town near Memphis, however, a church across the street from a Mosque building site put up a sign that said “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” In this town there were no petitions or vandalism, Hamilton said, because “the whole community learned from the church in that community how they were going to welcome their neighbor and how they were going to love those who were different from themselves.”
Hamilton concluded saying because “perfect love casts out all fear,” Christians should lead the way in welcoming Muslims into their communities.
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