Last Sunday I was invited to speak at a local Methodist Church on Islam. I lectured to about 100 people, and I held their attention for over an hour, as I described the history and theology and Islam, and then spent a good portion of time discussing the underlying reasons for the political turmoil in the Muslim world, most of which have nothing to do with religion.
Although several months have passed since the Trade Center tragedy took place, there is still a deep desire by many non-Muslims to understand us and to gain a greater awareness of what our religion is all about. I feel an obligation to try to explain these matters, especially as I am comfortable speaking in public, even to difficult or hostile audience members. But what has struck me is not how hostile but how receptive audiences are. After the lecture, I had many of the audience come up to personally thank me or even hug me. I am always taken aback by this sort of thing, but it is really the result of people’s thirst for accurate knowledge. Most Americans are intelligent enough to ignore the rantings of a Franklin Graham or Pat Robertson when they try to label Islam as an “evil religion”. I saw Franklin Graham try to justify his position by citing the ongoing practice of slavery. He does not mention that nowhere in the Bible is slavery banned or even discouraged, while the Qur’an is hostile to the practice and encourages freeing of slaves as expiation of a variety of sins.
For those who choose to speak in front of non-Muslim audiences, I would humbly offer a few words of general advice. First, emphasize the commonalties between Islam and Christianity and Judaism. These are fairly obvious to us, but come as real eye-openers to non-Muslims. Explain that the word Allah is in fact the Arabic word for “God”, but since Arabic is the sacred language, many Muslims say Allah instead of God even when speaking in English. Special attention should be given to the manner in which the Qur’an is revealed to emphasize that all Muslims, liberal or fundamentalist, accept it as the literal word of God, but differ greatly on interpretation. A common question that Christians ask is why Muslims don’t accept Christ as their savior if they accept the Injeel (Gospel) of Jesus. This is answered in two ways. First, Muslims consider the actual words of Jesus to be the Gospel, not all the other portions of the Christian New Testament (which is in fact the bulk of it), and secondly, we are uncertain about the accuracy of the Bible, so we accept the Qur’an where they contradict.
Secondly, any speaker is well served by being completely honest about the state of the Muslim world. Attempts to whitewash the discrimination against women in many Muslim countries, or the lack of religious freedom, will make you look foolish to informed audiences. Instead, you should acknowledge these problems first yourself, and then explain to what extent they are cultural or based on a certain interpretation of Islam that many Muslims disagree with.
The Israeli-Palestinian issue can also come up. I would emphasize that it is not a religious conflict, although both sides couch their claims in religious terms sometimes. But the PLO is a secular group, Palestinians are both Christian and Muslim, and the dispute is a national dispute between two groups on the same piece of land, with the Israelis subjugating the Palestinians by force.
Sometimes people can get quite hostile and couch their questions in a very insulting or disrespectful way. When you are a lecturer, you have the upper hand, and so don’t go for a roll in the mud when this sort of thing happens. Instead, it is best to answer the question, pretend that you have not been insulted, but completely reject the premise that the questioner offered. It is a common thing for other people to come to me and apologize for the behavior of the one idiot in the audience after the lecture when I deal with them in that way. Do not get involved in an extended argument though and simply move on to the next question.