Monthly Archives: October 2021

I’m toying with the idea that Americans mostly hear a single story about Muslims. That being: Muslims are trouble.

Of course the “trouble” part of this one story has several facets with varying degrees of reality: Muslims shoot at our sons and daughters. Muslims migrate to our country and don’t follow the rules. Muslims want to take over the world. Muslims are backward and oppress women. Muslims threaten Israel.

My intent is not to debate these individually, but to be honest about what messages are usually conveyed and consider that their aggregate, Muslims are trouble, ends up being the single story Americans have about Muslims.

And sadly, I think the subset of Americans who’d call themselves Christian would have the same single story. Certainly not all of them, but too many.

I’m wondering about this and would hugely value your input. I know you’re busy and I’m thankful you even opened this email. But can I ask you for two minutes to answer these questions:

1. Does this observation jive with what you see?
2. If so, what other facets comprise the single story: Muslims are trouble?
3. What do we miss out on when this is true?
4. What can we do about it?

You can reply in an email or comment on this post at shanebennett.com. Either way, I’d be so grateful for your input. Perhaps together, we can add other stories. Maybe we’ll find to be true what Chimamanda says at end of her TED talk, “. . . when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.”

Some blend of pride and longing shame likely characterizes the leaders of the seminary in India that catalyzed the early thinking, who shaped the early minds, of the group of Muslims we’ve come to know as the Taliban.

Pride in how they stood up to two of the world’s great powers. Shame that they diluted the teaching which had formed the genesis of their movement.

In the late 1860’s, just a few years after the British had taken over the Muslim leaders of India, a new movement was born to call Muslims back to a pure form of faith. It became known as Deobandi Islam.

After Indian Partition in 1947, Deobandi seminaries began to grow across South Asia, in particular along the Pakistani/Afghan border. It was there the early leaders of the Taliban were educated.

In a classic example of global play-making, Saudi Arabia began advocacy in South Asia in the 1980’s and their ultra-conservative Wahhabism increasingly influenced Taliban thought.

Although this is oversimplified, the Wahhabi thinking contributed to the “domination through violence” modus operandi of the Taliban. In contrast, Deobandis in India have mostly lived at peace with other Muslims and the vast Hindu majority.

Is it possible that India might have a voice in helping the Taliban build a civil society in Afghanistan? They’ve plowed vast sums of money into the country in recent years. Could original Deoband Seminary offer fresh reform? An 80 year old cleric there says, “I’m weak and old. But if given the chance, I would go to Afghanistan.”

Rather, I’m cheering for Mosquirix, the malaria vaccine the W.H.O. just yesterday gave a thumbs up to. It stands to make a huge difference as it rolls out across sub-saharan Africa. Hopes are high, even though its efficacy is pretty low.

If you’re like me and haven’t thought much about malaria the past week, it’s no surprise. There are only around 2000 cases each year in the US and most of those are in travelers who’ve returned from infected countries. (Maybe missionaries we love!)

According to the New York Times, “Malaria kills about half a million people each year, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa — including 260,000 children under 5.” You can bet most moms and dads in that region of the world are thinking about it a lot! Even when it doesn’t result in death, the multiple episodes children often experience yearly limit their ability to thrive and make them susceptible to other disease.

Mosquirix is a milestone because it’s the first vaccine developed for a parasite. The science is above my pay grade, but apparently it’s far more difficult to prime the human immune system to fight a parasite than a bacteria or virus. (Can we pause for just a second to thank God for smart women and men who’ve worked long and hard to bring us to this point?) At a 33% efficacy rate, Mosquirix is no slam dunk. But it helps. And better vaccines are in early trials. One with an early effective rate of 77%!

As you would imagine, poor kids tend to take the hardest blows from malaria. When kids can’t go to a hospital, they far too often go to Heaven. And despite the common images of Saudi sheiks and terrorists with briefcases full of cash, in many countries Muslims are the poorest of the poor.

Is it too much to say this vaccine is a gift from God?