I, like the rest of the world, was utterly horrified when I heard about the shooting that took place at Fort Hood last week. It was and is a heartbreaking tragedy.
I was also saddened to hear that the gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is a Muslim. I knew that it would likely provoke an anti-Muslim backlash against a minority group that has already suffered more than enough because of the behavior of extremists who claim to share their religious beliefs. My heart hurt for those that would be affected by such a backlash, and it was angry at the thought of people who would inflict physical or emotional pain on Muslims because of these events.
In light of our cultural proclivity to lash out against Muslims, I appreciated Arsalan Iftikhar’s article on cnn.com entitled “Murder has no religion”. Iftikhar is a Muslim, and in the article he shares what most of us already know: that Islam is a nonviolent religion, and the Quran is a non-violent book. Iftikhar does a good job of showing that Hasan’s heinous act was not a Muslim act, even though he said, “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) as he began his killing. To quote Iftikhar:
First of all, someone simply saying “Allahu Akbar” while committing an act of mass murder no more makes their criminal act “Islamic” than a Christian uttering the “Hail Mary” while murdering an abortion medical provider, or someone chanting “Onward, Christian Soldiers” while bombing a gay nightclub, would make their act “Christian” in nature.
Simply put; murder is murder and has no religion whatsoever.
I find it odd that in our culture (particularly the more fringe conservative fractions of our culture) we are willing to write of abortion doctor killers and gay nightclub bombers as extremists who don’t represent Christianity, while we are inclined to believe that Islamic terrorists like Hasan are somehow the product of mainstream Isalm. The reality is, as Iftikhar said, “murder is murder and has no religion whatsoever.”
Iftikhar’s article is very good, and he ends it with this statement:
The larger point is that Muslims in America completely disavow and wash our hands of any acts of murder (or terrorism) claimed to be performed in the name of our religion. Acts of mass murder, regardless of their time or place, are simply ungodly criminal acts that have no religion whatsoever.
I do not, for a second, believe that all religions are the same. I do not believe they all lead to the same place or worship the same god. I do not believe that our specific beliefs don’t matter as long as we are sincere. I believe in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the reality of human sin, the inspiration of the Bible, and the need for repentance and a relationship with Jesus for salvation. But I also believe that part of being a Christian is loving Muslims and standing with them when our wider culture wants to hate them because of the actions of extremists. Just as Muslim organizations condemn Hasan’s killings, Christians should be the first to condemn any anti-Muslim backlash.
It seems tragic to me that even though the Christian and Muslim holy books clearly prohibit killing, Christians and Muslims continue to kill one another, and often invoke their deity in doing so. Additionally, Christians and Muslims continue to support state-sponsored killing. Makes me wonder how religious we really are. Or, better yet, it makes me wonder what our religion really is.
