{"id":94991,"date":"2015-11-23T14:55:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T21:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=94991"},"modified":"2015-11-23T14:55:41","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T21:55:41","slug":"a-reader-writes-about-muslims-as-natural-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/11\/a-reader-writes-about-muslims-as-natural-allies.html","title":{"rendered":"A reader writes about Muslims as Natural Allies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2026against ISIS:<\/p>\n

It has been very refreshing to read all your commentary and defense of refugees in the midst of all the crazy post-Paris hand-wringing.<\/p>\n

I write to tell you about an experience that backs up what you have been insistent in saying: that the refugees (and indeed, most Muslims) hate Daesh\u00a0as much if not more than we do.<\/p>\n

Today I had the pleasure of attending an inter-faith prayer service at my college (a Catholic school) led\u00a0by a Catholic priest, an imam, and a rabbi, along with a handful of lay persons. The priest and the rabbi offered condolences, reassurance of God\u2019s love and constant presence in our lives,\u00a0and calls for peace from their respective traditions. The school president did the same.\u00a0One student sang (bafflingly, for a prayer service) John Lennon\u2019s \u201cImagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there was the imam. He opened with a greeting of peace, and proceeded to quote from a passage of the Koran about how the taking of an innocent life is like killing all humanity. He spoke with frankness and intensity, roundly criticizing all forms of violence and hatred whether abroad or here in the US.<\/p>\n

Then he said a name that I have not once heard mentioned on the campus, in all four years: \u201cWe [Jews, Christians, Muslims]\u00a0have a common enemy: Satan.\u201d He went on to talk about how we are being tested, and we must remain strong even as Satan is trying to tear apart \u201cthe order of our Creator.\u201d He identified the violence being done by Daesh with Satan.\u00a0<\/em>If that is not a condemnation, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n

I have no problem with you sharing this story with your readers if you think it would interest them. All I ask is that you not share my name (given how vitriolic internet discussions involving Islam and terrorism tend to get).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two things:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cImagine\u201d is the anthem of civilization utterly unable to cope with the inflamed spirituality of ISIS. \u00a0Imagining no religion is, in fact, very hard to do. \u00a0We are creatures who cannot help worshipping. \u00a0If it\u2019s not God, it will be something else (money, pleasure, power, and honor are the Big Four when it comes to idols). And, indeed, the people swaying dreamily to \u201cImagine\u201d are in hot pursuit of one or more of these idols. \u00a0Shallow atheists have take to the Interwebz over the past week with the standard boilerplate about the Paris attacks being \u201cwhat religion does\u201d. \u00a0But this is a dumb as putting up memes with atom bombs and Zyklon B containers and declaring them \u201cwhat science does\u201d. \u00a0Religious people\u00a0also did Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel and the work of Copernicus, Mendel, Pasteur, and LeMaitre. Religion invented the university, the scientific method, English parliamentary democracy, the hospital, the orphanage, and the concept of the separation of Church and state. \u00a0More than that, it is the human belief in the transcendent that moves us to have the love and courage to resist merely capitulating to mere exercises of power and fear. \u00a0You cannot hire martyrs to die at minimum wage. \u00a0But you can inspire people to respond, not with hate and fear, but with love out of a transcendent belief that God is love, that human beings are not mere pieces of meat whose death means no more than a pig\u2019s death does, and that our enemies, even they, are ones for whom Christ died.<\/p>\n

2. The most recent Pew Poll confirms my reader\u2019s impression that nobody loathes ISIS more than Muslims:<\/p>\n

\"pew-isis-favorability\"<\/p>\n

Yet, guys like Sean Hannity are so bound and determined to appease and capitulate to ISIS plan to isolate all Muslims from Westerners that they lie that the poll results show the opposite of what they show.<\/a>\u00a0Cowardice is a sin and sin makes you stupid. \u00a0Irrationally afraid of all Muslims, Hannity completely rolls over for ISIS and works hard to convince his audience that natural allies against ISIS are our enemies, because he would rather save his skin from reprisals by ISIS than work to defeat it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the counsel of the gospel is to do the right thing rather than listen to false friends telling you to do the evil thing for the sake of saving your skin:<\/p>\n

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. \u2013 Matthew 10:28<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026against ISIS: It has been very refreshing to read all your commentary and defense of refugees in the midst of all the crazy post-Paris hand-wringing. I write to tell you about an experience that backs up what you have been insistent in saying: that the refugees (and indeed, most Muslims) hate Daesh\u00a0as much if not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[761],"class_list":["post-94991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lose-your-life-to-save-it"],"yoast_head":"\nA reader writes about Muslims as Natural Allies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"...against ISIS: It has been very refreshing to read all your commentary and defense of refugees in the midst of all the crazy post-Paris hand-wringing. 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