You know something? Sometimes I swear at Muslims. Big groups of them and sometimes even individuals. That might be surprising if you know my bias toward them.
I love Muslims and long to see them receive the life Jesus has in mind for them, but sometimes I just don’t get it. Mind if I share with you?
Even though I detest it, I understand Sunnis and Shias battling over land and power. Heck, in my own backyard American Christians call for civil war against other self-avowed Christians. But I don’t understand killing people because they’re doing the religion wrong.
Last week, I swore at Hassan Muawiya, a Sunni Deobandi cleric who goes around Pakistan asking the police to prosecute Ahmadis for blasphemy, a crime punishable by death there.
If you don’t know who Ahmadis are, I don’t blame you. They comprise a small and unorthodox sect of Islam, numbering between 10 and 20 million and in my limited experience are among the nicest people ever. But they’re in the bullseye.
On January 12, nine Ahmadis were killedin their mosque in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Their Muslim attackers attempted to persuade them to recant their views and when they refused, killed them.
Protestants and Catholics have killed each other in the past, so our slate is not clean, but I honestly don’t get this. I’m thinking these killings would be roughly parallel to an Evangelical killing a steadfast Mormon. Would God be pleased by that? Nope.
I’ve got to think the fondness and care for minorities Jesus showed as he walked through Galilee carries on for minorities today, whether they be Christian, off-center Muslims or any other stripe of humanity.