Shane Bennett

Imagine this: 85% of your home country follows a different religion from you. About 30% of those people decide to have a religious gathering in your county! Of that 30% a healthy number, let’s say 20%, really don’t like you because of your faith. 

In the U.S. that would pencil out to 17 million people who really don’t like you attending a religious festival in your county! (340,000,000 X .85 X .3 X .2 = 17,340,000) 

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Where will they go to the bathroom? Well, this is full on happening right now in Uttar Pradesh, India. This Hindu celebration is called Maha Kumbh Mela and the big version happens once every twelve years. For reasons historical and astrological, this year’s is the most important in 144 years! 

Over 400,000,000 pilgrims are expected between now and the end of February to journey to the confluence of three rivers to take a holy bath in hopes of being forgiven of sin and delivered from the cycle of reincarnation. The rivers, two real and one mythical, meet up in the city of Prayagraj, whose name was changed in 2018 from Allahabad. 

Now imagine you’re one of the 150,000 Muslims living in Prayagraj this week. How many truckloads of people who believe “India belongs to Hindus” have rolled down your street today? 

I don’t know that number, but I’m feeling for our Muslim cousins in India these days. It’s hard times for many of them, Christians as well, and in the glow of the festival lights, it must be fierce. Perhaps some Mela-stress will cause many to seek the God who said, “You’ll find me, if you seek me with all your heart.” Lord, let it be so. 

In case you were wondering with me: The Independent reports these amazing numbers, “More than 150,000 tents have been set up on this land, equipped with 3,000 kitchens, 145,000 restrooms and about 100 car parks.”

Some years ago I helped launch a church planting effort among Muslim immigrants in Sicily. Preaching at a couple of really great churches resulted in lot of “holy kiss” greetings afterward. Those saints! The two-cheek kisses were sweet and kind, though an occasional five o’clock shadow resulted in kisses rougher than the homemade wine served at the pot lucks! 

I haven’t tried to start that custom at my church, although the wine at pot lucks would be a big hit! But it does make me consider what we keep and don’t keep from the New Testament. 

I’m no expert, but I think kissing is a common greeting among Sicilians even outside of church. It certainly is in France. On the other hand, my Apostolic Christian friends in the Midwest who presently practice this in church, might get punched if they tried it when bumping into a friend at the post office!

Do Muslims wrestle with this? Not the kissing, but the broader idea: Of all the things we read in the Bible and the Quran, what was for then and what is still for now? 

According to Sheikh Ahmad Saad (Who may speak for 25% of Muslims or only 25 Muslims. It’s hard to tell!), “When we discuss or try to explore the occasion of the revelation of a certain verse, we are endeavoring to discover the human context in which this exact verse was revealed.” 

The Sheikh further reminds his readers, “since the Quran is a universal book and the final word of Allah, its perfection requires it to cover all times and places.”

Perhaps when you define your book as God’s words spoken by an angel to be recorded by the final prophet, you pretty much eliminate the possibility of, “Not sure that’s for us to do anymore.” 

Maybe our wrestling with the instructions of Paul’s epistles is more like Muslims wrangling over the meaning and application of various Hadiths. I do know I’m thankful for the Holy Spirit, the grace of Jesus and definitely Sicilian kisses!

Rest in Peace President Carter
“On the basis of both values and interests, the natural relationship between Islam and the United States is one of friendship. I affirm that friendship, both as a reality and as a goal […] [and] am determined to strengthen, not weaken, the longstanding and valued bonds of friendship and cooperation between the United States and many Muslim nations.” – President Jimmy Carter (February 7th, 1980)

Twice a year, I invite Muslim Connect readers to contribute to keep this email going and growing. This is the last week of the winter push. If you’ve been considering a gift, now’s the time. You can give a gift here. (Click in the “Select Designation” window, find me and follow the prompts.) Thank you very much.

Barely three hours into the new year and hell breaks loose in New Orleans. Devastating for those who perished, were injured or simply were there and the families of them all. If you love Muslims and want to see them follow Jesus, don’t lose heart. People do bad things. All of us do, some on a grander scale than others. 

In pleasanter news, a couple of buddies are boarding a plane this morning for India. Through their jet lag haze, they’ll puzzle with a couple dozen mission leaders from around the country over the apparent 700+ people groups in India who still have zero gospel workers among them. (Many of those people groups are Muslim.) By God’s grace they’ll collaborate on a plan for information and action that will reduce the 700 to zero. 

This feels like a watershed for our little cadre, a starting line to which we’ve been slowly shuffling for several years. Would you join me in praying for this gathering? 

How about we pray for the whole sub-continent colossus while we’re at it? India is home to more Muslims than all but two countries. Yet, Muslims make up less than 15% of India’s population! More people live in India than all of North and South America! India has more unengaged unreached peoples than the next 40 largest UUPG countries combined! 

Yet, and this is the gut punch, India receives only one-fourth as many international workers as the USA receives! Of course among the ~3% of Indians who are Christian, there are many valiant gospel messengers. May God empower them, strengthen them with partners from around the globe and bless them with kingdom success beyond their wildest dreams. 

Here’s the last invitation to give until the summer. Thank you.

For more on the challenge of India, please see page 14 in this article. 

Please see the special note at the bottom of this email. 

Often lost in the massive shadow cast by Christmas, today marks the celebration of the demure, mindful, unassuming Boxing Day. It’s origins are murky and the number of explanations for the holiday roughly equals the number of Englishmen you ask about it! 

My favorite Boxing Day activity is along walk with people I love. I first experienced this on the moors around Bradford, England, but now am happy to hoof it with the family on the gravel roads around our southern Colorado home. 

You might not have breathtaking moors, but I hope you’ve had some classically great time with family this Christmas. I know it doesn’t happen every time for everyone, but family moves to the top of the list this time of year. 

That family proximity, intensity and duration at Christmas is where family tends to normally be for many Muslim cultures. Perhaps you’ve been in the midst of it, hanging out with a bunch of folks. Every older woman is either Grandma or Auntie or both! Every older man, gramps or uncle. If a person is within 10 years of you, they’re a cousin, whether related by blood or not. 

The strength of familial bonds can hinder individual Muslims following Jesus. Most of us can probably not imagine the depth of disappointment, nor the weight of shame a potential follower of Jesus anticipates from her family.

On the flip side, is it too much for us to ask God to use those familial bonds to bring whole households to Jesus? There’s precedent in Acts and around the world in our day. How I’d love to see a mom or dad, or maybe an influential uncle find Christ and lead their families to him. 

You may have heard ministry friends refer to Muslims as “cousins.” I like the family connection language. But here’s what I’m hoping for in 2025, so many cousins become sisters and brothers that next Boxing Day finds us all walking, chatting, rejoicing together. 

Special Note: Thank you for reading Muslim Connect. If God has blessed you this year and you’ve found value and maybe even some camaraderie in Muslim Connect, I’d like to ask you to make a year end gift (or even a monthly pledge to this work for 2025!). If you wish, you can give a gift here. (Click in the “Select Designation” window, find me and follow the prompts.) Thank you very much for considering this. 

Please see the special note at the bottom of this email. 

Around our house, the hands down favorite Christmas song is Paul McCartney’s Let It Be. Maybe you’re saying, “Hold on. That’s not a Christmas song.” I wouldn’t fight you over it, but I love that Paul pretty much quotes Mary’s response to Gabriel’s announcement that she’s going to give birth to the Messiah! 

The song is also popular around here because the Mom/Wife of the house does a wicked cover of it and used it as an anchor point in her sermon on Mary’s view of the Nativity this past Sunday. (If you’re inclined, you can watch here. The sermon begins at the 23.36 mark and the song at one hour.)

Mary’s “let it be to me” attitude, along with much more, both biblical and beyond, has earned her unique status for Christians. For Muslims as well.

She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Quran, showing up more often there than in the New Testament. In Sura 3.42, the Quran says, “O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds.”

Muslims tend to refer to her as Maryam, but it’s the same mom and the respect is real. I suspect Mary, given the chance, would remind Christians and Muslims alike to focus on the the baby, learn from the man, follow the Messiah. 

Should the Lord open a door for you this season, ask a Muslim about her thoughts on Mary. That conversation might quickly move to you both sharing thoughts on her baby! Sure, Muslims and Christians have important disagreements regarding the nature of that little rascal, but we both love him and his mom. And time spent talking about what we do agree on will not be wasted.

No Muslims to chat with? Join me in this Christmas carol challenge: For the next week, every time you hear a carol you dislike, take a moment to pray that many Muslims will find Jesus in a fresh way this Christmas.

Special Note: Thank you for reading Muslim Connect. In recent months for a variety of reasons, I’ve lost some quite significant donors to the ministry support that helps keep our family going. If God has blessed you this year and you’ve found value and maybe even some camaraderie in Muslim Connect, I’d like to ask you to make a monthly pledge to this work for 2025. I know this is a big ask, but trust you know you answer to God and not to me. If he leads you to make a monthly commitment, you can do so here. (Click in the “Select Designation” window, find me and follow the prompts.) Thank you very much for considering this. 

Please see the special note at the bottom of this email. 

“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays.” So goes the song and I heartily agree. But you know who won’t be home for Christmas this year? Former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. As his government fell last week, he and his family fled to Russia. He’ll have coal in his stocking for sure, but he’ll do ok with the billions he collected while his countrymen starved. 

Is it a good thing Assad is out of power? Only God really knows, but I’ll be honest with you, I’m glad he’s gone. His list of evil deeds would make the Grinch blush. I pray the forces who sent him packing will be able to rebuild and run the country. But, “Out of the frying pan and into the fire” keeps circling in my brain! 

Here’s what I really wonder about: What conversations are happening around dinner tables among the six million Syrians who’ve fled their country since the civil war began in 2011? Can we even imagine what it must be like?

“Should we return home?” 

“Is this God’s answer to our desperate prayers?” 

“What ‘home’ is there to return to?” 

“Will we be forced to leave what has become something of a home for us and certainly so for the kids?” 

“What do you mean, you’re thinking of taking us away from our school and our friends to go back to some hell hole we don’t even remember?!?” 

“Do the people who look at us in the street or at work wish us well or wish us gone?”

Remember that Jeremiah quote we like, even if we possibly take it out of context? 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29.11)

That may apply to Syrians even more than to you and me! And it provides solid scaffolding on which to hang some hopeful prayers. Join me in that? 

Special Note: Thank you for reading Muslim Connect. In recent months for a variety of reasons, I’ve lost some quite significant donors to the ministry support that helps keep our family going. If God has blessed you this year and you’ve found value and maybe even some camaraderie in Muslim Connect, I’d like to ask you to make a monthly pledge to this work for 2025. I know this is a big ask, but trust you know you answer to God and not to me. If he leads you to make a monthly commitment, you can do so here. (Click in the “Select Designation” window, find me and follow the prompts.) Thank you very much for considering this. 

One of the worst things about Christmas: The song “Away in a Manger!” Ask Mary and she’s going to tell you, “Actually a lot of crying he makes!” 

One of the best things about Christmas: Pictures of Jesus in a manger with his mom and dad. This one is my favorite. 

If you grew up as a Christian, you’ve likely been exposed to hundreds (thousands?) of images of Jesus. Some of them amazing, some stunning and some you just wish you could unsee. But likely you don’t think your appreciation or enjoyment of a particular picture of Jesus might lead to idolatry. I think you’re right. 

But the possibility of idolatry seems to be one of the key reasons many Muslims forbid images of Muhammad, and to a lesser degree the other prophets. The prohibition is not overtly in the Quran, but traces back to some statements and actions attributed to Muhammad and recorded in the Hadith. 

When Muhammad has been depicted in art, often by Muslims for Muslims, it is with respect and honor, his face obscured with a veil. Muslims refrain from painting Muhammad’s face because, not knowing what he looked like, any depiction is prone to misrepresentation. 

While the reluctance to depict Muhammad is not difficult to understand, the intensity of response by some to his image being shown sometimes is. My hunch is that most Muslims do not like to see pictures of Muhammad, particularly mocking ones like on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, but also disagree with violent response to them. 

Our challenge is to not lump all Muslims together, but to recognize all Muslims are created by God and creatively love and respect the ones God brings across our paths and minds.

Thanksgiving Day may be the most Christian of holidays. Gratitude is certainly an appropriate response to a God who has blessed us as thoroughly as he has. 

Since you may have family visiting today and you need to get busy telling them how much God loves Muslims, I’ll be brief. 

I am grateful for:

• As I write this morning, the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah seems to be holding. 

• I’ve recently been reminded of the tenacity of workers dedicated to befriending and connecting with Muslims nearby and very far away. 

• Having taught a couple Perspectives Lesson #15 classes this week, I’m rejoicing to think of the global band of just-graduated Perspectives students being released into the world! 

• I’m thankful for believers, both red and blue, who will continue to swim upstream by loving immigrants, even if we head into very xenophobic times.

• Finally, I’m grateful for you. Thank you for taking the time to open and read Muslim Connect and, to the degree God gives you grace, put what you learn into practice. 

(If you’ve got a moment to set your fork down and let me know what you’re thankful for, I’d be happy to join you in your gratitude!)

Have you ever loved something that most people disdain? For instance, sauerkraut, velcro sneakers or the Chicago Cubs. I love a city like this: Bradford, UK. It’s beautiful, set in the God-designed, soul-nurturing moors of northern England and its streets smell like curry! On the other hand, its glorious days are in the past and, unbelievably, some don’t see the balti-scented boulevards as a good thing. Go figure! 

Bradford’s population is about a third Muslim, the highest of any city in the UK. Among Muslim leaders there is concern these days about a bill that will have its first vote in Parliament next Friday. The bill calls for liberalizing the UK’s approach to assisted dying. 

Muslims and Christians largely agree on issues of suicide, euthanasia and physician assisted death. The shared conviction is that God alone has the right to both give and take away life. Of course, the particulars are gut-wrenching. Having not stared these things directly in the face, I hesitate even to write about them.

As Christians our challenge is to understand the Bible and apply its teaching with grace and love. 

Muslims in Bradford and elsewhere in the UK face an added challenge. Having felt slighted in the distribution of palliative care in the midst of Covid, they now wonder if the advance of assisted death might further diminish their hope for help. 

It’s a classic conflict between the majority who says, “This is how we do it now,” and the minority who pleads, “But that is not how we do it, nor has it ever been.” 

When Auntie’s life is in balance, the doctor seems to be leaning hard one way and you’re sure Allah’s looking down with a stern eye, these decisions are brutal. 

For a quick look at how Christians might view these issues check out this article from Britain and this from our friends at Denison Forum. 

As the Christmas train begins to pick up steam (We’re like 40 days away!), I’m wondering how much I should buy this year and how much I should eat. Sorry if this is too personal, but I have a history of overindulgence in both. 

At our house we’re aiming to mess up the tracks just a bit by implementing an idea from The Advent Conspiracy: We plan to take a long weekend (Thursday dinner to Sunday lunch) and eat nothing but beans, rice and tortillas. (And maybe an egg or two.) This will be a micro-step toward understanding how some people always eat, toward recognizing that life is more than what we put in our mouths. 

In Christian history, we’ve had forebears who’ve gone full bore in this. Ascetics who lived in caves, ate little, wore scraps and never kissed nobody. In the process some went crazy, but others met God in ways I can’t imagine. 

Islam doesn’t really celebrate or remember Muslims who’ve done this, though I imagine there must have been some. They do have an ascetic concept called Zuhd. As you’d guess, understanding of Zuhd varies enormously, but one writer captures it like this, “The actual definition of Zuhd is to detach one’s heart from this world.”

“Zuhd means to focus on the next life, but without neglecting one’s portion of this world. . . .Zuhd is necessary for attaining contentment and inner peace.”

If this takes your mind back to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, good for you. “Seek first the Kingdom. . . .” and, well, you know the rest! 

Maybe a key thing this Christmas is to not just merrily rattle down the tracks of our culture. Let’s at least sit up and poke our heads out the window once in a while and look around. Maybe grab the stop cord and slow the whole train down. Remember we serve a Savior who on the one hand made wine out of water, but on the other was himself the very bread of life.