Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Unique Claims of Christ: Negotiating the Christian-Muslim Interface Part 1

     Earlier this week there was a two-part public lecture in the chapel by a former Muslim, Emmanuel Ali El-Shariff.  He converted to Christianity in 1995, is trilingual (Arabic, English, and French) and is now involved in evangelizing to the Islamic people.  Emmanuel talked about the differences between the Koran and the Bible.
     I found this very interesting because I don't have much knowledge of the Koran.  Islam is the second-largest religion in the world and I know very little about it.  What made this presentation even more interesting was Emmanuel's use of actual selections of each text.  He stressed first that the biggest issue Islamic people have with Christianity is its affirmation that Jesus is divine.  This goes directly against the Islamic belief that God never was human.  Still, Muslims see Jesus as a prophet.  
     Emmanuel talked about his experiences living on the conservative Islamic island where he grew up.  He talked about having doubts but being unable to share them because he knew he would get punished if he did.  With the help of Christian missionaries, he essentially reasoned himself out of Islam by looking at what he saw as inconsistencies in what the Koran said about Jesus.
     The main difference between Islam and Christianity according to Emmanuel is in the phrase "for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30).  Christianity doesn't hold our sins against us, but rather through the death of Christ allows us to remove the guilt and shame around our sin.  Islam holds people very accountable for their sins and the state upholds much of this tough law.  
     This helps me in understanding the differences between the two faiths, even as it may not be the complete picture and is certainly simplified.  Stay tuned for my next blog post, which will be about how Emmanuel works at evangelizing to Muslims and also my own reflections on sharing faith. 

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