#880 Why Lump Islam in a Negative Category of Religions?

Dr. craig’s response

Oh, Georgette, you seem to be in danger of falling into the trap, so prevalent in our popular culture, of thinking that you can’t love someone if you disagree with him. That is clearly an unbiblical assumption. We can, and should, love people with whom we sharply disagree. Jesus even commanded, “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5.44). In Jan and my travels abroad to Muslim nations we have had wonderful times of fellowship with Muslims despite my disagreement with their religious views. In fact, because of my defense of the kalām cosmological argument, I have a ready bridge to Muslims that has made many of them warmly disposed to me even though I am an uncompromising Christian.

So in answer to your question, I most certainly do try to spread love to all people, regardless of their religion. The most loving thing that we can do for people is to share with them the life-giving message of the gospel of Christ, that they may find the love of God and eternal salvation.

You seem to agree that religions can be both good and bad. For example, I think you’d agree that Voodoo is a bad religion, personally destructive for its practitioners and for others. Not all religions are alike. So why do I include Islam in the negative category of religions?

One of the main reasons is because its concept of God (Allah) is so morally defective. Allah is not an all-loving God. Although he is characterized in the Qur’an as “the Compassionate, the Merciful,” in fact the Qur’an makes it abundantly clear that his love extends only to faithful Muslims. Over and over again like a drumbeat, the Qur’an emphasizes that Allah does not love unbelievers. Allah’s love is partial, conditional, and has to be earned. According to the Qur’an, Allah is an enemy to unbelievers. In other words, according to the Qur’an, God does not love the very people whom the Bible says God loves so much that he gave his only Son to die for them (John 3.16).

This defective concept of God works itself out practically in terrible ways. Islam divides the nations of the world into two domains: the “house of submission” and the “house of war.” Faithful Muslims are commanded to wage jihad against those nations that have not yet been brought into submission to Islam until they are forced to capitulate. The irrational, obsessive antisemitism recently on display by Hamas is no accident. The Qur’an commands Muslims to lie in wait and ambush Jews and pagans and to kill them if they do not surrender. Muslims are taught by their religion to hate Jews.

Just as nominal Christians fail to live up to the teachings of Jesus, as you note, so also the average Muslim, especially in the West, may be merely a nominal Muslim and so fails to live up to the teachings of the Qur’an. We can be thankful for that! But notice the difference: when Christians exhibit hateful attitudes, they are acting contrary to the teachings of Jesus; but when Muslims exhibit such hate toward Jews and other unbelievers, they are acting in obedience to the teachings and example of their prophet.

You are right to draw our attention to the difference between the slaughter of the Canaanites in the Old Testament and Islamic jihad. God’s command to the Israelites to drive the Canaanites out of the land, on pain of death, was not an attempt to get them to convert to Judaism! It was not in any way a religious war. Rather it represented God’s judgement upon them, which had been stayed for centuries, for their evil behavior.  By contrast, violence is actually a means of evangelism for Islam, and historically Islam was spread by the sword.

You ask, “Why aren't you looking at the positive areas of the Islamic religion?” On this score, I agree with Pope Benedict: everything good about Islam is borrowed from Christianity. You see, Islam is in fact an outgrowth of the Judeo-Christian tradition and as such carries forward many good things, such as monotheism and belief in immortality. I also find great good in Muslim culture. I love Islamic architecture, calligraphy, cuisine, and its rich intellectual tradition. I have made the study of medieval Islamic philosophy and theology an area of specialization and find it fascinating and stimulating. It’s the religious tenets of Islam that are not derived from Christianity that I find so horrifying.