Author: Bat Yeor
Publication: National Review
Date: December 4, 2006
URL: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzYwMDNjZDRiMTRkODUyMTQ1ZWYwMjA4OWI3NjYwMTM
Comparing the Muslim and Christian conceptions
of God.
With the passing of time, hidden challenges,
which for a long time had been growing unnoticed and unaddressed, can suddenly
emerge into the full-blown light of current events with a force which seems
quite overwhelming. Today the Western world, or Judeo-Christian civilization,
shaken by jihadist terror, is being rudely awakened to theological realities
blurred for decades. From clashes of civilizations to the jihad that is declaring
to the planet its genocidal intentions, rational discourse concerning faith
is becoming increasingly fraught.
It is within this tumult and confusion that
Mark Durie, an Anglican minister, has written Revelation? Do We Worship the
Same God?, in which he raises a couple of fundamental questions: Who is God?
Is God Allah? Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?
To answer these questions, he analyzes Jesus,
the Holy Spirit, and God in Christianity and Islam. The reader is given a
concise representation of Muslim and Christian arguments. Such an endeavor
needs both solid scholarship and theological training. Mark Durie possesses
both, being a theologian and a graduate in the language and culture of the
Acehnese, a Muslim people from the north of Sumatra in Indonesia. In addition,
the subjects he addresses, in the current context, request much intellectual
integrity and courage.
But how to know the identity of "God"
in the Koran and in the Bible? The author stresses that this profound and
deep question requires engaging with the very essence of God's identity. With
perspicacity and great objectivity, Durie delineates the diverse aspects of
his investigations, but he warns that his book should be seen only as guidance,
and not the last word.
Durie's questioning grows from the Koran's
statement that Jesus is a Muslim prophet, named Isa - a prophet whose birth,
life, teaching, and death are found to be totally at odds with the testimony
of the Gospels and with Biblical theology. The Koran - which for Muslims is
the literal word of Allah that cannot be doubted - affirms that Muhammad's
prophetic message is exactly the same as that expressed by the Torah and the
Gospels. Since there are many contradictions between the Koran and the Bible,
Muslim orthodoxy considers the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity as falsifications
of the primal and unique Islamic revelation. It is this accusation that provided
the doctrinal justification for the discriminatory legal status of Jews and
Christians living under Islam.
In the first section, the author provides
information about and reflections upon the Muslim Jesus (Isa). He stresses
as fundamental the Koran's teaching that Islam is the first, primordial religion,
preceding Judaism and Christianity, which are dismissed as invalid traditions,
being falsified versions of Islam. Because Christianity and Judaism are thought
to be a corruption of the pure message of Islam, anything true in these religions
comes from their Islamic roots. Consequently, to obey their true religion,
Jews and Christians should "revert" to Islam and accept the prophethood
of Muhammad.
This implies, writes Durie, that anyone who
opposes Muhammad is not a true Christian, nor a true Jew. Seen in this light,
the Koranic verses sympathetic to Jews and Christians refer to those who will
see the light and find it to be Islam. If Islam recognizes only itself in
Judaism and Christianity, one can wonder whether this replacement theology
is not the negation of the very principle of recognition of other religions.
Many Christians profess that Christianity
is closer to Islam than to Judaism, because of a common reverence of Jesus/Isa
and his mother Mary. They will be astonished to learn from Durie that according
to hadiths - acts and sayings attributed to Muhammad, and endowed with theological
and legislative authority - Isa, the Muslim Jesus, will be the ultimate destroyer
of Christianity.
Durie examines the characters of Jesus and
Isa, separated by six centuries; he compares their name and biographies and
explains the differing understandings of the prophecy in the Bible and the
Koran. While Christianity accepts Jewish Scriptures as the foundation of their
belief and practice, and as an integral part of Christian ministry, read in
churches around the world, Muslims disregard the Bible. They claim that it
is Islam that is the common heritage of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and
that Jews and Christians should work to recover this heritage. Durie comments
that, in this process, the Islamization of Jesus and the Hebrew patriarchs
and prophets destroys both Christianity and Judaism.
The author analyses with great clarity and
depth the fundamental principles of the two religions and, in a powerful chapter
that raises essential questions, he discusses the concept of "Abrahamic
Faith" that has become so fashionable today as a framework for dialogue.
This definition, he points out, originates from the Koranic statement that
Abraham was a Muslim prophet and from Islam's core doctrine that Islam was
the one revelation given to humanity by Allah through the Biblical figures
and through Jesus. For Durie, the many "Abrahamic Faith" conferences
throughout the world point to the Islamization of Christian understandings
of interfaith dialogue. How should Christians respond to this claim which
is a fundamental point of Muslim doctrine? Durie develops several arguments
based on a rational analysis of history and the texts.
In his conclusion, Durie writes that profound
contrasts exist in Islam and Christianity in their understanding of the identity
of God. These have far-reaching implications, affecting attitudes, ethics,
and politics. The clarification of misunderstandings and false assumptions,
masterly exposed by Durie, is a condition to open the way for more constructive
dialogue.
Durie's book could not have been more timely.
He offers a well-balanced analysis, acknowledging the important similarities
of the two faiths, without ever misrepresenting the real disagreements or
ignoring the hard issues. In this time of globalization, when crucial challenges
are emerging for the West's post-Christian societies, Durie's reflections
provide essential and fundamental guidance that will enable Christians to
engage in a dialogue based on truth.
This is all the more urgent now that the cultural
jihad in the West is preventing the free expression of thought and belief,
and is subverting the whole ethical foundation of Judeo-Christianity.
- Bat Yeor is the author of studies on the
conditions of Jews and Christians in the context of the jihad ideology and
the sharia law. Recent books include: Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations
Collide and Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, both at Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press.
