Shane Bennett

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.

As I write, the kiddos around here are enjoying their last day of school! Starting tomorrow, in the “always-make-me-cry” words of C.S. Lewis, “The term is over. The holidays have begun!”

The advent of summer means a couple things for our Muslim Connect tribe. One, of course, is that you should plan to visit my ridiculously beautiful part of Colorado so we can share a coffee together! But there are also fresh opportunities to care for our Muslim cousins. 

Three Summer “To Do’s:”

1. Practice the Power of the Popsicle
   At less than a dime each, these frosty sticks of joy are hard for anyone to pass up. Take them to the park, take them door to door, invite kids over to enjoy them. Popsicles are the summertime ticket to friendship!
2. Bring on the Book Club
   If you’ve got a thoughtful Muslim friend, consider inviting them to go through A Christian Reads the Qur’an with you. It’s free on Kindle Unlimited right now. 
3. Mull Over the Mercury
   Let the rising temps remind you of the hottest places on earth, both literally and metaphorically! (Seven of the top ten on both scales have Muslim majorities!)

Bonus Kid activity (Because I’m not the only one planning work for them!): Send your kids to the Unengaged Explorer Tool. In the “Religion” and “Population” drop downs choose “Islam” and “100K to one million.” Choose a people to research. Write five sentences about them, a prayer for them, and draw a picture of them.

Two “Do Not’s!”

1. Don’t serve beer and brats! Definitely invite Muslim friends, or friends to be, over for a cook out, but go the extra mile to source halal meat and drinks. 
2. Don’t ask a conservatively coveredMuslim woman, “Are you hot in that?” But do check out Huda Fahmy’s hilarious book, Yes, I’m Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab.

I pray you have a wonderful summer and that God gives us all grace to love Muslims like Jesus does in the coming weeks. 

I really hope when you read the subject line above you thought, “Here we go. This oughta be good.” 

You’ve likely seen news of Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, perishing in a helicopter crash. Seven others, including the foreign minister died along with him. 

Because the president’s job in Iran is basically bringing the Ayatollah’s wishes to fruition, his death does not upset the core of the government. On the other hand, experts say he was a likely pick for the next Ayatollah. Since the current one is 83 (What kind of country has leaders that old?!), that job may be getting posted soon. 

Two questions come to my mind with Raisi’s death: 

1. Is it ok for believers to be glad when a bad guy dies?God told Ezekiel, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” But perhaps Raisi’s death means the death of fewer people, along with the possibility of less oppression for a lot of people.
2. What is ahead for Iran? Since chatting with a Persian believer almost 25 years ago, feeling his passion for the overthrow of the clerics, I’ve longed for the day when the government of Iran would change.

   I’m thankful for the unprecedentedgrowth of the church during this time of the oppression, but I desire for the oppression to end.

   How might that happen? God alone knows, but people speculate: Various opposition efforts chip away at the bastion of the established government. The precarious relationship with Israel could spark change. Maybe something entirely unexpected will happen.

   Here’s my hopeful hunch: Although few people willingly give up power, and the Mullahs are not among them, we all get older and die. As the passionate revolutionaries shuffle off, they’ll be replaced by less feisty leaders, more open to conversation, to the existence of Israel and to a thriving economy that serves more than a cadre of elite, be they Muslim or otherwise. 

In our youth group’s valiant journey through the book of Acts, we arrived at chapter 15 last night. This is where the early gang gets together in Jerusalem to decide if those crazy Gentiles need to be circumcised in order to get Jesus. Since I have an unhealthy fear of middle schoolers and am regrettably still part middle schooler myself, I was big time wary about the hand that was sure to go up with the question, “Shane, what is circumcision?”

As my wife wisely predicted, it didn’t happen. But the traumatic anticipation has me thinking today about the practice, particularly why Christians would or wouldn’t circumcise their baby boys and why Muslims tend to do so. [To be clear: We’re discussing male circumcision, not female. I find no reason to not consider FGM wrong in all its forms.]

While Jews still circumcise their boys, they do so for ostensibly religious reasons. Christians, at least in the U.S., snip at a fairly high percentage, even though the Bible in general, and Acts 15 specifically, indicates it’s not a command from God. Interestingly, circumcision is not mentioned in the Quran, but Muslims (after Jews) practice it at the highest rate. 

So what’s your guess why we do this? 

I can hear some of you saying emphatically, “We don’t!” Fair enough. But many Christians and Muslims do, and do so outside of any religious conviction. 

My hunch: We don’t want our sons to be different from most in a fairly sensitive, even taboo, part of their bodies. Under the cover of sketchy medical reasoning and pretty heavy family and cultural pressure, we go with the flow. 

Muslims additionally see circumcision as indicative of membership in the global ummah or community of Islam. 

While I’m sure I don’t understand the full meaning of Paul’s challenge to “circumcision of the heart” in Romans 2.29, that internal, spiritual surgery is certainly a more significant snip and one from which we could all benefit.