My greater concern is how Christians respond to Muslims.

My greater concern is how Christians respond to Muslims. By Mohammed Wassalam (*)

What is the message Christians need to hear at this time in America?  

Regardless of what we feel about the teachings of Islam (they are false at its core) our calling to reach out to Muslims and obey the Great Commandment to love our neighbors and to fullfill the Great Commission still stands.  

When Christians fixate on the worst of the "other" and make sweeping generalizations about another group, will it encourage them to reach out in love and believe God is able to transform the other?  I see fear, ignorance, and at times even hate hindering Christians from reaching out to their Muslim neighbors.  

This to me is the great message we need to encourage Christians with in this hour.  To transcend their fears, to reach out in love, and to rise up in faith knowing that God is still able to change a Saul into a Paul.  And, also to take great care at not demonizing a whole group of people with the worst of their group and not acknowledging that the vast humber of Muslims in the world are not hateful jihadists but fallen human beings who need God's love and the Gospel as much as we do.  That is my heart and where I am coming from.  

I am sharing this text anonymously  for two reasons: 

1) People that disagree will often want to argue and it can be a full-time job arguing on FB.  I just don't have that time.  Occasionally, I post something that I know may get a reaction but I try to do it respectfully and thoughtfully.  I really am done with FB wars.  

2) My relationship with local Muslims.  I try to be 100% transparent with my Muslim friends.  We even talk about the proclaimational aspects of our respective faiths and how they are in competition with one another.  If we find Muslims - and we have with several of the refugees - that wish to study the Bible and explore the Christian faith we share with them in formal or informal ways.  However, the terms "missionary" or "evangelism" can be very misunderstood and be a stumbling block.  

Our approach is to lead with the Great Commandment and look for God's openings to do the Great Commission.  But in whatever case to always do the Great Commandment. 

One final thought.  It is human nature to have blindspots into our own brokenness.  As such we tend to judge other groups by their worst and our group by our best.  I think that is hypocritical and I see Christians do this quite often.  

For example, in recent news we have a man in Quebec who goes in and shoots up a mosque, killing several.  

On his FB page he had Christian orgs and was an avid Trump supporter.  I didn't hear a lot of Christians grieve over this our renounce him. Imagine if that would have been a Muslim going into a church and doing the same.  I see this kind of thing happen time and time again. We need to take care to not measure our best against their worse but to acknowledge that we have our own baggage and that we are all precious in God's sight and all in need of God's grace.   

Give us more Christians who will be consumed with love and faith rather than fear.

I am not trying to win a Facebook argument but am wrestling with being faithful to Jesus and encouraging the Church to be it's best. I love you. 

(*)The author of this text asked me not to reveal his name. #JSalum (publisher)