DOG BITES MAN ALERT

Seeing Islam as 'Evil' Faith, Evangelicals Seek Converts (LAURIE GOODSTEIN, May 27, 2003, NY Times)

In evangelical churches and seminaries across the country, lectures and books criticizing Islam and promoting strategies for Muslim conversions are gaining currency. More than a dozen recently published critiques of Islam are now available in Christian bookstores.

Arab International Ministry, the Indianapolis group that led the crash course on Islam here, claims to have trained 4,500 American Christians to proselytize Muslims in the last six years, many of those since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The oratorical tone of these authors and lecturers varies, but they share the basic presumption that the world's two largest religions are headed for a confrontation, with Christianity representing what is good, true and peaceful, and Islam what is evil, false and violent.

The criticism is coming predominantly from evangelicals, who belong to many independent churches and Christian denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention.

Evangelicals have always believed that all other religions are wrong, but what is notable now is the vituperation. [...]

Most of the authors and teachers preach a corollary of the Christian dictum to "love the sinner and hate the sin." They assert that while the vast majority of Muslims are not evil, they have been deceived by a diabolical religion based on a flawed scripture that can never bring them salvation.

I don't personally think that Islam is an "evil" faith, but do think it may be so flawed that it can not form the basis of a modern society and that it has--perhaps because of that--been hijacked by men who can not be reconciled to modernity, despite the fact they have no choice. Given that context, establishing Christianity as a viable alternative in the Islamic world seems a very good thing. Meanwhile, whoever wrote the headline "Evangelicals Seek Converts" is, shall we say, not the brightest bulb in the box. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 27, 2003 3:17 PM