Islam Means Peace

Dear Islamic friend,

If several hundred years ago you had learned that members of your nation had been burned at the stake for refusing to convert to Christianity, and some Friar said to you "Christianity is a religion of Love", would you have believed it?

Well, you have the same problem I would have had back before the Reformation. In the darkest days of Christianity, when corrupt people held the highest offices of my faith, those who claimed to speak for God did unspeakable things. The leadership of Christianity permitted any number of injustices and atrocities to be done in the name of the Church, something modern Christians do not countenance.

Martin Luther and other reformers, responding to the call of God looked the corruption of the church square in the eye and at great risk to themselves altered the course of the Faith, and history itself. It took several centuries and an enormous degree of fighting before the Church righted herself, and returned (more or less) to the Gospel delivered once unto the Saints. We still have our problems, but the Crusades are no more, the Inquisition is no more. Ironically, instead of burning our heretics at the stake, we give them tenure at our universities.

I said all that to say this. When you tell me that "Islam means Peace", I don't believe you, any more than you would have believed Friar Balderdash after learning of the awful deaths of your countrymen. Setting aside our theological differences, in my eye Islam, as it is practiced commonly is not peaceful at all. In nation after nation I hear of your Islamic co-religionists at best stirring up trouble, at worst, they are inciting and participating in bloodshed, often against my Christian brothers.

Perhaps you practice the harmless version of Islam. Good for you and I wish you well, but until I see a sweeping reformation of your faith I shall remain skeptical. From what I can see, your religious leaders are corrupt and thoroughly wicked, and I have little faith that your leaders will be willing to co-exist with mine.

And another thing. The Jews are my brothers. You hate them, you hate me, for it is from their family my Savior comes. Everything I know about God I learn from them. Without the Jews, I would have no hope for Heaven. Don't tell me about how peaceful Islam is while spewing hatred toward them.

I don't envy your position. Islam, as far as I can tell, is trapped in a tough spot where the most vocal echelons are lunatics, and those who would rather practice a peaceful strain of Islam have no effective leader to counter the madmen. I'm sure my forefathers had to pray for deliverance until Martin Luther showed up. I hope you get someone like that. I doubt the secularists are going to just roll over and accept sharia, and we Christians sure as heck won't, and our civilization has much better weaponry and tactics.

Tim McNabb