- Other Opinions
- August 19, 2008
- 13 minutes read
Muslim hails tolerance among U.S. Christians
I WAS ONCE again reminded this summer of the amazing degree of religious tolerance that many Christians in this country display habitually.
I had the rare honor on June 29 of giving the sermon in a Christian service at the
Quran, the holy book of Muslims, teaches that diversity has a divine purpose. God could have created us all the same if he chose to, but in his infinite wisdom he created us as people of different ethnicities, races and beliefs that we might get to know one another and compete in doing good (Quran: 49:13, 2:148). It was in this spirit that I visited with the Episcopalian community.
The history of conflict between Islam and Christendom is well-known. The contemporary conflicts in the
Christian hospitality to Islam is neither new nor unusual. It is a 1,400-year-old Islamo-Christian tradition. It all began in 614 A.D. Muhammad the prophet of Islam started preaching his message of one God in
Five years into his ministry, Muhammad asked some of his followers who suffered the most to migrate to
Within five years of the birth of Islam, Muslims were migrating to Christian lands in search of religious freedom. Fourteen hundred years ago, only 15 Muslims – 11 men and four women – sought safe haven in Christian Abyssinia; today nearly three million Muslims enjoy the same in the
Many prominent American Muslims have gone on record saying that they feel freer to practice Islam in
Islam does not just thrive in the secular democracy of the
I lived outside
After the sermon, I chatted with the congregationists about the common ground between Islam and Christianity. I felt genuine fellowship and realized that in spite of everything that has happened in global politics, Islam in
However, not all is hunky-dory. In the
The Quran says about Christians that among them there are those who do good, forbid evil and are in the ranks of the righteous (3:113-114), I believe that last Sunday, I was in the midst of just such a community. *
Dr. Khan is director of Islamic Studies at the