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For much of the top half of the planet, these present days mark the return to school. Kids from California to Kamchatka bid a fond adieu to fun, freedom and non-school food. 

They trade the joys of summer for the challenges of school, including sometimes being and other times welcoming new kids. 

Some of those new kids in some of those schools will be Muslim. And some of those will have all of the standard new kid vibes plus they’ll be wearing a hijab or bearing a very non-Jaden/Braden/Caden name. 

If you’re reading this as it drops and your nearby school starts on Monday like it does for my tribe, you’ve got a couple of days to maybe make a difference. If kids owe you respect because you’re way older than them, attention because you’re their teacher or maybe money because you feed and house them, gather them around you. (An open bag of Sour Patch Kids is great bait for my munchkins.) 

Tell them it’s possible there will be a new student or two at their school who is Muslim. You may mention Muslims follow a different faith, but we have some things in common. Share that some students will be weirded out by Muslim kids, but you’d like them to remember this: 

Muslim kids are lit! (They’ll know “lit” is a good thing, even it it isn’t part of your everyday vocabulary.) Proceed to work the acronym: 

L: Loved by God. 

I: Insecure. Of course not all are, but since most kids are insecure the first few days of school, the likelihood is high! Plus the extra stuff.

T: Terrific. You don’t need to be afraid of them. In fact, they might become a really good friend for you and you for them. 

If it’s in your authority to do so, tell them you’ll give them a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids if they set up a play date in the first week of school! 

Feel free to pass this idea along. Cut and paste in your bulletin or post it on the church Facebook page. 

It’s a tough time to be a Christian, love Jesus and love Muslims. 

There’s pressure to support Israel without question, regardless of its actions. There’s pressure to commit to (almost?) any ends in opposition to abortion and immigration. And if you dip into social media, the algorithms will quickly turn the apparent fight up to 11! 

If it’s tough for you, but you’re trying today, thank you. Hang in there. Here are three things that help me: 

1. Throw a ball for a dog. 
2. Marinate in Psalms that admit things are a mess, but God’s got it. Psalm 16, 18 and the ever-popular 46 are good starters. 
3. Ask good and thoughtful questions; of yourself, God and others. 

I don’t know how “good and thoughtful” a question this is, but I’m wondering if Muslims in the U.S. will rally to Kamala Harris. 

Arab-Americans provided instrumental support to President Biden in his push to the White House. His policies on the war in Gaza have now alienated many, calling into question the impact their voices will have on the upcoming election. 

Now they’re waiting to see what stance Harris will take. Will she continue the current party line relative to Israel or will she make an effort to differentiate from her boss’s approach? 

This might be a good question to sensitively pose to a Muslim friend. Let’s keep aware though that many Muslims will have a more deeply emotional connection to the conflict than many Christians. For us, it’s more likely a theological question. For them, it could literally be a family issue. 

As we watch this unfold, let’s join together in asking God that the war in Gaza, which daily threatens to expand, would come to a quick and just conclusion.

Ps. 46.10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations;
I am exalted in the earth.”

11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Please see the final week giving note at the end of today’s email.

My sweet wife is currently reading a book called God and Money. (Fair warning, you might not want to read it. I get little nervous every time she says, “So I read this thing in that book on money. . . .”) 

The book tells the story of how “John and Greg met as Harvard MBA candidates in a men’s Bible study and stopped asking ‘How much should I give?’ and started asking ‘How much do I need to keep?’” 

That’s a great question. For the sake of honesty, though, I should admit our family has yet to fully engage it. But it’s got us thinking about how Muslims think about money. (It’s almost always easier to wonder about someone else, than deal with it yourself, innit?)

The Zakat Foundation, a non-profit helping distribute Muslims’ charity briefly shares: 

“Five Essential Islamic Teachings on Wealth”
(If you think, “Whoa, these sound familiar, you’re not wrong!)

1. Wealth can be enjoyed, but do not let it distract you.
Wealth can give us pleasure in life, but it can also be a distraction from what is truly important. A Muslim should not save and hoard great sums of money, but should distribute it to those who are in need of it.

2. It is never acceptable to earn a living by doing wrong.Muslims must earn their wealth in a lawful, or halal, way. “O you who have believed, do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent.” Quran 4:29

3. Practice charity toward the poor, orphans and those in need.
The faith of Muslims is built on the five pillars of Islam. One of those pillars is giving wealth to charity, or zakat.

4. Do not fear poverty. God will provide.
Some believers say that fearing poverty is the same as not trusting in God.

5. Giving of your wealth is the source of true prosperity.
“The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of God is like a seed [of grain] which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains.” [Quran 2:261]

May God help Muslims honor him with their wealth. And you and me, too.

Today is the final week for this semi-annual Muslim Connect funding drive. (And it’s oddly aligned with an unplanned edition on zakat!) If you’ve been considering a gift, now would be a good time. I’m raising money to get all the 390+ editions of Muslim Connect archived at shanebennett.com. I’m also beginning to dream about putting a collection of them together in a book! If you’d like to give, please click here, navigate to the “Staff” drop down, select me and proceed. Thank you very much. 

Please see the special note at the end of today’s email.

In case your Islamic calendar has gone missing, the current month is Muharram, the first of the Muslim year. On the 10th day of Muharram, Muslims celebrate a holiday known as Ashura. Ashura fell this year on July 16th and 17th.

While all Muslims celebrate Ashura, both the ways and reasons vary between Sunnis and Shias.

For Sunnis, Ashura mainly commemorates Moses parting the Red Sea. Some add remembering Noah getting off the ark and Joseph getting released from prison. Like Shias, Sunnis celebrate with fasting, extra prayers and giving money to charity and family. 

Ashura is a much bigger deal for Shias. For them it commemorates the 10th day of Muharram in the seventh century when Husayn, Muhammad’s grandson was killed by the Umayyad army in the Battle of Karbala. Shias believe he was the rightful successor to Muhammad and remember his martyrdom still today.

Shias fast, add prayers to the schedule and give money like Sunnis, but they also engage in elaborate and heartfelt mourning ceremonies. 

Muhammad is reported in a Hadith to have said when asked about fasting on Ashura, that doing so expiates the minor sins of the past year.

As is too often the case, violence marred this year’s celebration of Ashura: Islamic State terrorists fired on a gathering of Shias in Muscat, Oman, killing six and wounding 30. Four of the dead were Pakistani citizens. 

Jesus said the enemy came to steal, kill and destroy, but he came to bring abundant life. May that life be increasingly known among us and throughout the Muslim world. 

Twice a year I invite you to consider a gift to help fund Muslim Connect. The email is free and always will be, but this summer I’m asking God to bring in the necessary resources to archive all of the Muslim Connect emails at shanebennett.com. If you’ve learned something today or found value in Muslim Connect generally, please click here, navigate to the “Staff” drop down, select me and proceed. Thank you very much. 

Please see the special note at the end of today’s email.

The governor of Louisiana recently signed a law requiring the Ten Commandments (10C) be posted in every public school classroom, from elementary through university. 

“No later than January 1, 2025, each public school. . .shall display the Ten Commandments in each classroom. . . .The. . .Ten Commandments shall be displayed on a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches. The text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster. . .and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font.”

I’m guessing if you’re reading Muslim Connect you’re fairly pro-Ten Commandments. You think they’re a good idea and you endeavor to shape your life in alignment to them. 

But should governments, local, state or federal, mandate their display in public school classrooms? And you may wonder, like I do, what does this mean for Muslim school kids? Of course there are myriad other considerations as well. 

Two questions come to my mind:

1. What do Muslims think of the Ten Commandments? Turns out you can find parallels to each of the commands in the Quran, save remembering the Sabbath. They’re not in a list like Exodus 20, but the sentiments are reflected. So Muslims agree generally with the governor of Louisiana that the 10C reflect God-ordained and sensible, moral rails for life with God and society.

   But does this make a Muslim fifth grader feel more or less at home in her classroom? And frankly in what ways and how much does that really matter? To me, you, the governor of Louisiana?

2. Do you think this law is a good idea or not? I’d love for you to take 30 seconds and weigh in on this one question survey.

However you see this, may God give us all grace to live by the 10C and even more so by Jesus’s sum up of them to love the Lord God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself!

Twice a year I invite you to consider a gift to help fund Muslim Connect. The email is free and always will be, but a contribution now will help it keep going and growing. Particularly this summer I’m asking God to bring in the necessary resources to archive all of the Muslim Connect emails at shanebennett.com. If you’ve found value in Muslim Connect and would like to help, please click here, navigate to the “Select Designation” drop down, select me and proceed. Thank you very much. 

Please see the special note at the end of today’s email.

Yesterday the U.S. celebrated its 248th birthday. If you joined in the festivities, I hope you had a fun time. Our family did. 

Although the fireworks have slowed down here, they continue unabated in Heaven for three amazing situations (among many) which are still unfolding. Be encouraged:

“Man in White” Dream
Recently in an unengaged area of an east African country a man dreamed of a guy in white accompanied by a pair of men he didn’t recognize. When two missionaries strode into his village, he said, “Hey I know what you’re talking about, I saw you in my dream!” He quickly gave his life to Jesus. This has helped catalyze over 80 others following Jesus and eight house churches forming. 

Strength in Trial
God is giving resilience and courage to Iranian believers whose incarceration for their faith includes added humiliations and pain. God continues to give hope as Persians in Iran and beyond find life in Jesus. 

Hope Realized in Chad
Three months ago there were 92 unengaged people groups in Chad. Now four of them have been engaged! Is there still a long way to go? Definitely, but the trend is right and momentum is growing. Chadian believers, new and old, are obeying Jesus, spreading the good news of the Kingdom.

Twice a year I invite you to consider a gift to help fund Muslim Connect. The email is free and always will be, but a contribution now will help it keep going and growing. Particularly this summer I’m asking God to bring in the necessary resources to archive all of the Muslim Connect emails at shanebennett.com. If you’ve found value in Muslim Connect and would like to help, please click here, navigate to the “Select Designation” drop down, select me and proceed. Thank you very much. 

A fictional account of the brevity of Hajj blessings.

Not even two days. How can it be? Less than 48 hours from finishing my first Hajj, the pinnacle of my faith, and I’ve lost the sense of forgiveness I’d gained. Three reckless words and it’s gone. 

It was good while it lasted; that feeling of pleasing Allah, being cleaned of my sins. Blessed forgiveness. We chatted, the other Hajjis and me, about the goodness of Allah, the wisdom of our prophet, the fellowship of the ummah. Together we mourned the blessed dead who’d perished during the pilgrimage, 1100 souls now in paradise. 

We left the holy city to our respective places, eyes on Allah, hearts filled with peace and hope. 

I pulled into the driveway and my family poured out the front door of our home. We hugged and cried. They could tell I was different. We had no idea how brief the difference would last. 

In the living room, I opened my bag to pass out the gifts I’d brought: Hand of Fatima necklaces for the teenaged girls, a football jersey for the 10 year old boy. As I pulled the shirt out, a bottle sparkled in the suitcase and he snatched it, the perfume I’d bought for my wife, the expensive one she only gets when someone passes through a duty free shop in Dubai. 

You suspect what happened, no? The bottle sprang from his hand, arced through the air and glanced against the granite end table as if fell, breaking into dozens of pieces, the precious perfume soaking into the carpet. 

“Damn you, Jamal!” The words sprang from my mouth as cleanness fled my soul. 

It would be nice to blame it on jet lag, but sin is sin. I’m reminded my white soul is black every time I walk through the fragrant living room. And what am I to do? I apologized to Jamal, of course, and began today to save money to return on the Hajj again someday. 

If forcibly displaced people were their own country, they’d rank 13th in order of population! That’s just after Japan and ahead of the Philippines. 

Today is World Refugee Day. Thanks for taking a moment to try to take in the situation. Look over my commentary, click a couple of links and if you’re a visual learner, drink in the three stunning graphics below that I poached from an insightful Al Jazeera article. 

Three things to remember:

1. God has a warm heart for displaced people. Jesus is God and experienced with his family the trauma of fleeing for their lives to a foreign land. 
2. If you’re an American Christian, please join me in growing our understanding of the situation at our southern border and refusing to conflate and hate. 
3. The majority of refugees today are Muslim.Al Jazeera says, “As of 2024, almost three-quarters (72 percent) of all refugees came from just five countries: Afghanistan (6.4 million), Syria (6.4 million), Venezuela (6.1 million), Ukraine (6 million) and Palestine (6 million).”

Four things to do:

1. Pray: Here’s a brief meditation and prayer you can pray through and share with others. 
2. Pay: The INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR REFUGEES serves displaced in many places. Your gift to them would be put to good use. 
3. Play: Football, chess and dolls are supra-cultural. Find a place refugees gather nearby or far away and take some time to play. I think it would fall under Jesus’s category of “cup of cold water in my name.”
4. Invite them to stay: Americans recently have been given the opportunity to band together and sponsor refugee families. Remembering that God doesn’t ask anyone to do everything, how cool would it be for Christians to receive grace from Him to help bring the number of refugees admitted all the way up to the 125,000 ceiling! 

The annual Hajj is here. Two million Muslims will make this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca. They’re fulfilling one of the five pillars of Islam and hoping to receive God’s forgiveness for their sins. 

Please grab this provocativeHajj prayer guide and join with believers seeking God’s best blessing for the pilgrims. 

Tomorrow (Friday, June 14) will be a worldwide day of prayer for Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran. Please share this link freely and plan to pray at noon in your time zone. 

Thanks for praying for the retreat I’m hosting. God’s hearing and answering your prayers. 

Would you like to hear something really cool? Last week a friend from Montana donated his theological library to my church! I now have about 2500 books on my reading list! 

And this one: Soul by Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims by Brazilian journalist Adriana Carranca. 

Carranca, who is not a believer, became friends with fellow Brazilians in Afghanistan who happened to be missionaries. In the book, she tells their story in order to, in the words of Frontiers’ founder Greg Livingstone, “. . . let the world know it ain’t just “gringos” risking their lives to tell Muslims who Jesucristo really is.”

I suppose you might share my mix of hope and fear when a mainstream journalist writes about missionary activity. The reviews seemed solid enough and excerpts sufficiently gripping for me to encourage the effort by buying the book. It should arrive this weekend. Want to grab a copy and read it with me?

I’d also love to hear what you’re reading lately. I’m currently reading At Home in Mitford to my wife, Unoffendable on the recommendation of a church member and am committed to re-read Francis Chan’s The Forgotten God, because I want to be better friends with the Holy Spirit. 

As you’re interested and able, please sharebook recommendations here for the rest of the Muslim Connect tribe. 

PS: Please pray for me: I’m hosting a retreat next week for a cadre of missions people who’ve rallied to the dream of no unengaged people groups by the end of next year. Currently our best research says there are 1586! Ask God to help us take the steps he has in mind to the end worship arises from among all peoples. Thank you.