I am writing this article because of the latest developments in the Netherlands concerning the movie made by Mr. Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who demonizes the Muslims worldwide.

After the 9/11 tragedy the world’s political scenario has been drastically changed. I still remember that day when it happened, the people were looking so angry and hateful to me when they saw me passing by, as if it was my fault; less did they know that I am not a Muslim, but due to my black hair and posture they categorized me as one.

Often the Islam is being portrayed as an aggressive religion, and people like Wilders pick up verses from the Koran out of the context in order to demonize Islam with their prejudices. Geert Wilders speaks about the Judeo-Christian culture and traditions that are being threatened by the growing Islamization in Europe, but less he realizes that these Judeo-Christian traditions were once also persecuted in Europe as well. Specially the Judean one! Less he knows that the Judean traditions and scriptures show similarity with some Koranic laws.

I like my fellow Christian brothers and sisters take the following points in consideration:

First of all in response to the Movie of Mr. Wilders I would comment the following: Mr. Wilders has edited fragments of various movies from the fundamentalists groups, their speech, their deeds and pictures of the 9/11 and by merging these fragments into a movie he shows the so called dangers of the Islamization in Europe. This is sensationalism. Let me explain to you why. I also can edit fragments of the Ku Klux Klan in USA, showing how they set the cross on fire, how they quote the bible to justify their hate towards the blacks and others non-white groups, and portray a false image of Christianity and make Christians look like extreme fundamentalists and so demonize the Christians. This is also happening today in some Islamic world, that Christians are accused of being connected to Imperialism, colonialism, western chauvinism and superiority. This is also a false image that some of Muslim friends have about us Christians in the Muslim world. So in every side there are people who are demonizing the counterpart by falsely accusing each other of fanaticism.

Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of the air. Our enemy is neither Islam nor any other religion. Our enemy is the system of injustice and narrow mindedness of people creating fundamentalism and fanaticism to the point of killing one and other.

Secondly, we as Christians have to play the role of peacemakers. Peacemakers between the Jews – Muslims, the world – Islam, Christians – Islam etc. We should not throw more fuel on the fire of hate. Remember what Jesus said: “blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called sons of God”. Before we accuse the Islam of being an aggressive religion, we have to look at our own historical report: “didn’t we kill in the name of Jesus? Didn’t we colonize entire Africa in the name of Jesus? Didn’t we at least some part of the Church during the World War II collaborate with Adolf to eliminate the Jews? Read the teachings of the reformer Martin Luther; there are tendencies for Anti-Semitism.

Didn’t we baptize wars in the name of God and democracy? Who did throw the first nuclear bomb on people’s head? A Muslim nation? No! But a nation whose values are based on Christian norms and standards. Who killed the most Jews in the recent 100 years history? An Islamic nation? No! Judge it for yourselves.

Please do not misunderstand me, I am a born again Christian, but never the less I have to say these things in order to make my fellow brothers and sisters to be conscious about these facts.

Thirdly, we have to realize that in our own Old Testament there are verses and texts that if we take them out of context, we too will be portrayed as aggressive and fanatic. “In Islam, they talk about stoning”, we say! Don’t we have stoning in the Old Testament? When God asked Joshua to conquer the Promised Land did He not command Joshua to kill and destroy other people? But we as Christians do not want to do so? Why because we understand the context and we know that we live by Grace! How much do we know about Islam? How many information we have about Islam that is not biased? How much do the Muslims know about us? How many of their information about us is not biased? Is it not nice to come and dialogue with each other? But how can we dialogue if we are not willing to fellowship? How can we dialogue if there are people from both sides who are causing more division than love!

Fourthly Islam has been adopted to the local cultures in the world. The Indonesian Islam for instance, is different than Turkish Islam or Egyptian Islam. From one side this is good, but from the other side there are rites and rituals in the local cultures that are incorrectly being related to Islam. Many times we as Westerners are mixing up these cultures with the religion of Islam. Women-circumcision has nothing to do with Islam, but in some Islamic countries in Africa they do so. This doesn’t mean that Islam is teaching women circumcision. Or in some Islamic cultures people go to streets and beat themselves to blood, to memorize the death of their hero Imams etc. But this is not what the Koran teaches. This reminds me of people in the Philippines who crucify themselves on the cross to feel the pain of Jesus. This is not what the Bible teaches us. Isn’t it? But if someone sees these things on the TV they also think that we as Christians are fanatics. Just like some Muslims and Jews who think that Christianity teaches men to drink human blood etc…

Fifthly we have to distinguish between Arab and Islam. Arab is a race and Islam is a religion. Arabic is a language and not religion. Arabs are people and not religion. What I try to say is that there are also Arab Christians, Christians who belong to the Church of the East. Less we know about the Church of the East in the West. The Church of the East, the Arabs, the Persians, Assyrians etc had the most effective and powerful evangelization movement in the world from already the first century till 8th century. Before Roman Catholicism ever reached Japan in the 1500’s, the Church of the East already had evangelized half of China and also Japan.

Once a Christian brother told me that the Arab Christians should stop to use the word Allah for God. This is insane! For centuries Arab Christians have called God, Allah and now because of sensations of war, we are trying to even take the vocabulary from the Arabic Bible. Even the word God we use in English then is not correct, because this is a word from German origin guthan and Sanskrit origin huta meaning the Supreme Being. We all then have to change the words like God, LORD etc from the Bible.

Did you for instance know, that the meaning of the name Mohammad means praiseworthy! In those days in Arabia, before even Islam was born, the names like Mohammad already existed! How come in those days when there was no Islam, people spoke about praise to God etc? Because there were many Eastern Christians and even Jews who lived in Arabia those days! These names, which we now consider them as Islamic, were before Eastern Christian names in Arabic. However, the Western Christianity considered anything non-western as pagan! This happened in Africa. When we arrived in Africa, we considered the African names as pagan names and changed them into James, John, Peter and Matthew etc…

Whereby many African names had godly elements and godly meanings like praise to god, or loved by god and many other names but we so called Christianized them by giving them western names. We have to be open-minded whenever it comes to other cultures and religions including Islam.

Sixthly, we have to know how to distinguish political issues form religious issues when it comes on the subject Israel. Often we Christians blindly choose the side of the state Israel, who also does not fully play according to international rules and yet Christians unconditionally support any action from Israel. Did you know that when Israel attacked Lebanon there were also Christians who lived there? Do we realize that there are also Christian Arab-Palestinians in Palestine? Of course God loves Israel, but at the same time God loves all the peoples of the world! This was and still is the message of Jesus. This is what he said to the Jewish scholar the Nicodemus: “God loved the world so much” not “God loved only Israel so much… that He gave his begotten son”. I know many of my fellow Christians are going to be offended now by what I am saying! Do we realize that after Christianity, the only religion in the world that officially through its scriptures honors and respects Jesus Christ, is the Islam? Of course they do not see Jesus as God, or the Son of God, but at least they revere Him! At least they believe He is ascended to heaven and sit at the right hand of God and at the end of times He will return? How come then we are here to blindly choose one side and neglect others. Jesus Christ showed that we all are special to God now by grace, through His death and resurrection. 

We also have to realize that the Ishmaelites are also the biological children of Abraham and so is Israel, but we Christians are adopted by God’s grace into the Abraham’s offspring.

Lastly, democracy and freedom of speech does not mean to invade other people’s dignity and honor by humiliating them! Democracy doesn’t mean that we can say whatever we want to say for the sake of democracy even to the point of bringing a whole society in danger. Democracy means being wise! Let us dare to talk to those who are different than us! Let us dialogue with them rather than competing with them on the theological issues. Remember it is not up to us to make someone Christian, but up to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: “you did not choose for me, but I choose you”.

Let us love others who are different than us, including our Muslim friends and Jewish friends and by doing so, through our unconditional love become a bridge of peace and blessing to other people of the world.