Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Christian Response to Islam: A Struggle for the Soul of Christianity

By John Azumah
July 2009

(Editor’s note: Azumah’s latest book, My Neighbour’s Faith, is on the topics discussed in this article. See sidebar inthis article for Azumah’s comments on his latest book, along with publisher information.)

One of the crucial issues facing Christians around the world today is finding the right balance in our response to the various challenges posed by Islam and engagement with Muslims. The quest for an appropriate Christian response to Islam and engagement with Muslims has sadly polarized Christians along evangelical vs. liberal, truth vs. grace, or confrontational vs. conciliatory lines.

As an African, my own struggle is the way these positions are presented as absolutes in either/or categories. In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City (9/11), the Iraq war, the Madrid bombings, etc., the division among Christians has deepened. Reflecting on the situation, Joseph Cummings talks of a titanic struggle going on in the heavenly realms—a struggle not between Muslims and Christians or between Islam and the West, but “a struggle within Christianity itself, a struggle for the soul of the Christian faith.”1

What Cummings is suggesting, and I couldn’t agree more, is that Islam per se is not necessarily the greatest challenge facing Christians today, but rather how Christians choose to respond to Islam. There seems to be a general consensus that we should be talking about Christian responses rather than “response” to Islam.

To work out what constitutes an appropriate Christian response to Islam, there is a need to

identify the various faces of Islam.

To work out what constitutes an appropriate Christian response to Islam, there is a need to identify the various faces of Islam needing responses. I want to suggest four needing considered Christian responses:

  1. The militant and violent face of Islam, including Islamic terrorism.
  2. The ideological face of Islam in the form of Islamists conceptions of an Islamic State.
  3. Islamic/Muslim criticism, rejection, and polemics against Christian beliefs.
  4. Islamic missionary activity—daw’ah.

These faces of Islam impact Christians in different ways in different contexts, and will therefore elicit different responses from Christians depending upon the context.

Responding to Militant Islam
 In our post 9/11 world, Islamic militancy seems to have become the driving force for responses to Islam and engagement with Muslims. In order to think of a Christian response to Islamic militancy, it is vital that at least three facts are stated. For as Jesus said in John 8:32, there is freedom in knowing the truth.

  1. Apart from instances of communal violence in Indonesia and northern Nigeria, Christians are not the primary targets of jihadists Muslims. The targets are specific governments and states (Islamic governments and states included). Western democracies are surely prime targets.
  2. While Christians and several other non-Muslims have been victims of Muslim militancy, the actual number of Christians killed in Islamist violence pales in significance when compared with the number of Muslims killed. In other words, Muslims are the main victims of Islamists violence.
  3. Research shows that Islamic militancy creates disaffection in Muslims concerning Islam. Some convert to Christianity (where there is a friendly Christian presence) or simply backslide.

All the facts therefore point to the fact that Islamic militancy is more of a threat to Muslims and Islam than to Christians and Christianity. For Christian citizens whose nations are targets of Islamic terrorist groups, Paul makes it clear in Romans 13 that dealing with such threats is the responsibility of governments and state security forces. In times like these Christians should remain patriotic citizens without compromising their prophetic calling or sacrificing their pastoral care for the weak and vulnerable.

Dr. John Azumah is director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at the London School of Theology in Northwood, Middlesex, United Kingdom.