The pilgrimage begins...

Islam and Christianity through the eyes of a twenty-something

While at college, I had listened as my Christian peers puzzled over the world’s second most prevalent belief system, wondering “why anyone would ever want to convert to Islam—it’s so…oppressive.” However, very rarely were they familiar with even the fundamentals of Islam, and I never heard anyone, not a pastor or a professor or a fellow-student, make a substantive case explaining how a religion that says it is about “submission” and “peace” could be a vehicle of oppression. Part of that was my own apathy; I wasn't looking for an explanation. I didn't really care. Islam didn't seem to be a big deal to my friends or my church, so I decided it wasn’t going to be a big deal to me. I glossed over my ignorance, categorizing Islam as not-so-great alternative to the truth I've found in Christ.

But God began to make me uncomfortable with such a hands-off mindset.This summer, before I began working here at Smyrna, I heard the Iranian-born actress Shohreh Aghdashloo speak at a screening of the film The Stoning of Soraya M. She stars in the movie, which is banned in Iran, that is 116 minutes of artistically captured pain—the pain of a woman and her family enslaved in the name of Islam. It is an intense film, and echoed a book I read on women’s submission in Islam called The Caged Virgin, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ali stunned me with her exposé of the hopeless subjection women experience as Muslims in many regions. Millions of women literally live and die in a system that says they were created for a mere physical purpose, and that the very design of their bodies causes men to sin.

Although both Ali and The Stoning revealed my ignorance and made me indignant with my apathy, God alone has changed my heart, and is stirring within me a genuine concern for Muslims. Writing for Smyrna is allowing me to learn the background behind persecution incidents in an Islamic context. Every day I talk with Christians who have seen first-hand that devotion to Allah is unutterable bondage. Their joy and conviction in Christ is incredible, and their compassion for the Muslim world is humbling. As I seek to emulate their faith, I have decided to catalogue my research and efforts to understand Islam, share resources that I find helpful, and contrast the God and Father of Jesus Christ with the god of Mohammed.

It is my prayer that you benefit both intellectually and spiritually from this blog.

God, you are the only way to life and peace; help us to better understand your Word and who you are, because there is a spreading Darkness that our culture, and perhaps even our church, is ignoring. Lord, I want to defend your Name and the freedom I have in you. I do not want to be caught off guard, nor do I want my brothers and sisters to trivialize a matter that has life-or-death importance. Please guide my steps, instruct my heart, and inspire my pen as I pilgrim toward truth.
Amen.