(Note: this response interacts with the Johnston and McAllister-Wilson papers included in this issue of the journal).
David L. Johnston and David McAllister-Wilson complement each other nicely. Johnston provides a helpful context for interpreting typical American perceptions of Muslims today. Admittedly, dubious political agendas, rampant eschatological speculation, and struggling ecclesial missions apparently have driven the general American perception of Islam far too much. Yet Johnston hopes that Christians and Muslims today can simultaneously maintain commitment to radical differences while affirming real common ground in efforts to work toward realistic understanding and cooperation. I heartily agree.
However, Johnston does not offer any suggestions about how to turn the Christian-Muslim relational tide in the United States in that much-to-be-desired direction. McAllister-Wilson focuses Evangelicals—uniquely poised out of our own sectarian pilgrimage—to lead the way in developmental relational progress between U.S. Christians and Muslims as humans-in-community. Moving from fearing and smearing the other to blind affection and infatuation should not set the norm. Healthy relationships require honest assessment, hard work, and humble commitment. Again, I heartily agree. However, McAllister-Wilson does not offer specific steps for pursuing that admirable objective.
As a Pentecostal Christian I closely identify with Evangelicalism. That is my frame of reference for saying that Islamophobia is by definition irrational, extreme, and unchristian. In a nation founded upon freedom of religion, it is also un-American. Given that, why are many of us so afraid of Islam?
Superficially, perhaps we are all-too-easily affected (or infected) by fear of the other—any other, whether of ethnicity, race, gender, ideology, religion, etc. To go a bit deeper, maybe we are afraid for the individual or societal survival of our culture and country. Moreover, perhaps we are afraid that Islam will challenge our own religious identity and integrity—which is why in my experience I have found Christians who are most secure in their faith to be least Islamophobic. There are probably several other such fear factors contributing to rising Islamophobia.
Of course, there may be more than a little competitive rivalry between religions, including Christianity and Islam. That is natural enough. We “compete” for the same “resources,” namely and mainly people. But Islamophobia goes even further. It invokes fear and invites violence. Islamophobia is sinful. It is in the same category as racism and sexism—only, if possible, even more virulent. But from whence does it come?
Expulsion or banishment is at the core of the fallen human condition. Adam and Eve’s exile is decisive and definitive for us all. “Banished” (ṣālaḥ) is the same language used of Abraham’s action that “sends away” Ishmael and other possible rivals to Isaac (Gen 21:14; 25:6). It describes the scapegoat that is expelled from the camp of Israel (Lev 16:10). Still stronger is “drove” (gāraš) in Genesis 3:24, which also describes God’s exile of Cain (4:14) and Sarah’s charge to Abraham to “get rid” of the slave girl Hagar with her son (21:10). It is the language of divorce and dispossession (e.g., Ex 33:2; Deut 33:27).1 Is it some small coincidence that these incidents involve irrational fear and implacable strife against the other?
Perhaps deep in each human being resides an abominable instinct, arising out of fallen, sinful nature, which casts out and drives others away in twisted reenactment of their own haunting sense of exclusion, otherness, and alienation. Matthew’s Gospel teaches us that the danger of ultimate exclusion is not imaginary (8:12; 22:13; 25:30). But Jesus himself endured for us the darkness outside (22:53; 23:44; cp. Heb 13:11, 13) and now all may stand before an open gate (Rev 21:25). If incessant anxiety over our innate sense of separation from God and each other is our damnation, then there is salvation too. Thus I agree with Miroslav Volf in Exclusion and Embrace, on the essentiality of reconciliation for the reality of Christian salvation.
Exclusivist tendencies often stem from unconscious psychological and sociological concerns over one’s own ultimate exclusion or inclusion. One who has the prerogative and power to exclude others does not see him/herself present among the excluded. Thus irrational fears (or phobias) regarding alienation can sometimes lead people to form small, close-knit cults, such as the Branch Davidians, with disastrous consequences.2 Arguably, Islamophobia arises out of similar instincts spread still more broadly. However, putting oneself in the position of deciding who is or is not included or excluded involves sinful usurpation of divine sovereignty (1 Cor 5:12-13). Only God can make that call.
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