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Grace for Muslims

By Steve Bell, National Director of Interserve England and Wales

Is it possible for a Christian to respond positively to a Muslim without being either theologically liberal or politically naïve? I am convinced it is but only through grace.

Grace is the willingness to change the default mechanism in our brain which causes us to fear what is unfamiliar. It is willingness to include the Muslim within the scope of God’s love in Christ. We do not stereotype all Catholics on the basis of the behaviour of the IRA, so why do we judge all Muslims on the basis of the behaviour of Al-Qaeda?

To avoid naïveté we must recognise that there is a political dimension to Islam. Take, for example, a recent Gallop poll which found that while sixty-five percent of Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims think shari‘a would do a better job than secular government; and that twenty-five percent claimed to be ‘radicalized’. (1) Within this category there is a spectrum of views including hardcore support for 7/7. Such Muslims are equally loved by God but can hardly be called ‘ordinary’.

A grace response is not an attempt to appease Muslims where they need challenging, nor does it excuse them where they need prosecuting. The battle against political Islam is a matter for specialist Christians who need our prayer as they relate into government, which under God oversees society (Rom 13:1-7). The battle for Muslims is a matter entrusted to all Christians.

It would be easier to write yet another article on the wearing of the veil (niqab) as being part of a political ploy to Islamicise Britain; or about the oppressive abuse of human rights in most Muslim countries. However, that does not get the Great Commission for Muslims taken more seriously.

We need a third way which avoids becoming cynical armchair critics or naïve wishful thinkers. The third way is the grace response; this was modelled by Francis of Assisi who balanced political realism with grace towards Muslim people. Francis travelled the Middle East as an apostle of grace during the Crusades, a time when Christian/Muslim relations were even worse than now. The modern equivalent would be a godly American bishop travelling in Iraq to interface with Muslim militias with no military protection. Francis of Assisi’s well known prayer becomes even more poignant with this in mind.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope, and where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and in dying that we are born to eternal life.

We are living in a day when once again Muslims are mistrusted. It is when this prayer is answered in the lives of Christians that they find they are able to ‘bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things’ (1 Cor.13:7); it is this kind of Christian who Muslims are prepared to call “friend”.

I am proud to belong to the Urban Vision network which exists to offer local churches the cross-cultural training, resources and practitioner help they need in order to connect with the Muslims who now live in their postcode. Churches are asking for help to grasp what God is saying to a secular Britain through the Muslim presence; develop a more nuanced understanding of Islam; discover God’s heart for Muslim people; learn how to use the links between Judaism and Islam as a doorway to sharing the Gospel with a Muslim and also how to offer culturally inclusive fellowship for people from Muslim backgrounds within the relational network of the local church.

We must be available to the Muslims who are becoming ‘eastern followers of Jesus’ and help them do so in ways that are culturally appropriate for them.

Grace is the biblical response that spares us from having a human reaction to individual Muslims.

Notes:

1. Jay Smith, Is it time to confront? (CIS Bulletin: London College of Theology, 2003) p13-14 An ICM opinion poll also came up with the figure 91% of British Muslims who said they feel loyal to Britain (Sunday Telegraph, 19 February 2006, p1)