BAD MUSLIMS
by Joe Sobran

     According to a verse in the Koran, it is said, there
must be no compulsion in religion. So why are Muslims so
often violently intolerant? The question is raised anew
by the fanatical Muslim reaction to Pope Benedict's
recent speech in Germany by millions who neither knew nor
cared what he was actually saying. The response included
curses, threats, denunciations, demands for apologies,
the burning of churches, and the murder of a nun.

     Let's acknowledge that Christians too have sometimes
-- more often than we like to recall -- used the sword to
spread their faith and to suppress heresy and unbelief.
But nearly all Christians now admit that this was not
only wrong, but contrary to the spirit of Christ, who
told us to turn the other cheek, pray for our
persecutors, and, when meeting unbelief, to do nothing
more violent than shake the dust from our feet and move
on.

     The Christian faith conquered the Roman Empire
through Christians who took these commandments very
literally. These were the countless martyrs who died
under hideous tortures to bear witness to Christ's
resurrection. Typical was St. Lawrence, who, while being
burned to death on a giant griddle, quipped to his
tormentors, "You can turn me over now. I think I'm done
on this side." Sometimes the martyrs' example converted
their persecutors on the spot.

     Let us posit that true Islam forbids compulsion in
religion. In that case, Muslims who use the sword are Bad
Muslims, giving their faith a bad name among non-Muslims,
as in the fourteenth-century passage the Pope cited in
his German speech.

     That speech was not an attack on Islam, but an
affirmation that faith and reason are harmonious, because
God is the God of reason. His Son is the Logos, the Word,
as the Gospel of John says, through whom all things were
made. One of the things this means is that religion can
and must be discussed rationally. Faith and reason can
never be opposed, though human reason has its limitations
when confronting such mysteries as the divine Trinity.

     Just as good Christians have had to swallow their
pride and confess that the sword was the worst means of
propagating their faith, good Muslims must face the fact
that Bad Muslims have disgraced Islam in the world's eyes
-- and are still doing so -- by giving it the bloody
reputation the Pope alluded to when he quoted the
offending words. If you conquer by fear, you may count on
being hated. Do Muslims want the very name of Allah to
terrify the world? Or do they want it to signify goodness
and mercy? These questions should answer themselves.

     Whatever "true" Islam may be, the world judges by
what it sees. And as someone has put it, "Islam is as
Islam does." Right now the fanatics are doing most of the
audible talking and too much of the visible acting; and a
community is judged not so much by the character of the
majority, but by its prevalent powers, even if they are
only a violent and tyrannical minority.

     Today the world sees Saudi Arabia, for example,
banning Jews, Bibles, the public display of Christian
symbols, and the celebration of Mass. It sees Iran's
ayatollahs calling for the killing of authors. It
recently saw democratic Afghanistan sentence to death a
Muslim convert to Christianity. It has seen terrorists
threaten to behead captives unless they convert to Islam,
and now the murder of an old nun. It has seen Sunni and
Shi'ite Muslims slaughtering each other and bombing each
other's mosques.

     If these are all violations of true Islam, one could
easily get the wrong impression. At least the Bad Muslims
disdain to prevail by reason and persuasion. They are
promoting the identification of Islam with sheer
savagery. And the real tragedy is that good Muslims put
their own lives at risk if they oppose them.

     Fear may make quick and superficial conversions, but
Christians have learned that it fails in the long run.
Fear, after all, is our enemy, and one of the New
Testament's most frequent sayings is "Be not afraid." Our
faith has been spread by the courage of our martyrs, such
as the murdered nun, who died saying, "I forgive." She
remembered that Christ died for all of us, including
Muslims.

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Read this column on-line at
http://www.sobran.com/columns/2006/060919.shtml.