Reply to The subtle micro aggressions of islamophobia

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One of them is when people think they're being PC and saying it doesn't matter if you pray to God or Allah or whoever you believe in. Allah = Arabic for God. I truly believe lots of celebrities who say this WANT to set Islam apart in a negative way -- in a -- oh we respect Muslims, they just pray to some other foreign God.[b] Um no -- they pray to the same God as Christians and Jew[/b]s.[/quote]

I respectfully disagree with this.  As a Christian I do not believe that Muslims pray to the same God as I do.  Nor do Jewish people.  I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but my God is a trinity which must include Jesus.  If you do not believe in Jesus as God, then we do not believe in the same god.  We don't need to believe in the same god to be respectful to one another.  [/quote]

As a Muslim I completely understand WHY you don't think we pray to the same God as you. However, from our perspective the true message delivered by Jesus did not teach trinity (see Gospel of Thomas thread). Thus, the message Jesus brought is the same message as Moses brought and it is the same message that Muhammad brought. This is from the Muslim perspective. It emphasizes the oneness of God. So from the Muslim perspective, we do pray to the same God that Moses and Jesus spoke of, although we do not pray to Jesus as God. Muslims know by now that many, not all, Christians believe Jesus is God himself but we do not accept this. [/quote]
But clearly, Muslim perspective isn't the only one that counts here, is it. If you say "we pray to the same God as Christians", and Christians disagree, you have a de facto impasse.  Christians also disagree massively with Muslims on what exactly Jesus' message was. Jews certainly don't look to Muslims to interpret what exactly was the message that Moses brought.  That Muslims would like to draw these figures under the umbrella of Islam doesn't mean much to Jews and Christians. [/quote]

I think its not entirely correct for Muslims to say we believe in what Christians believe, because assigning partners to God or saying God is actually a man is a huge sin in islam. It is more correct to say muslims believe in Jesus' message. Now we know Christians interpret Jesus' message differently and of course thats their prerogative but it is a true factual statement for a muslim to say he embraces Jesus'teachings.[/quote]

Christians believe (not "interpret" as you put it) Jesus' message is very different from the Quranic Jesus' message. So when you're talking to a Christian audience or to an audience that's familiar with Christianity, saying you believe in Jesus' message is going to mean something very different to them than it does to you. This is the same problem as claiming women are "equal" in Islam. In both cases you're presuming your listeners have knowledge about Islam that they probably don't have. Or, more likely, given that 98% percent of Anericans are probably not familiar with the Quranic Jesus, you  KNOW your listeners are hearing something that isn't quite the full truth. [/quote]

Fine. Believe. Not interpret. I will make sure to say "Christians believe" from now on. I did not mean to be disrespectful. But this is similar to a situation where you say Islam advocates an eye for an eye philosophy whereas Christianity does not. This is not entirely accurate. I don't want to explain it in detail in this thread but you are free to start another thread for this topic and I will be more than happy to discuss there. My point is simply that if you are a nonMuslim who also hasn't studied Islam extensively, it isn't fair to Muslims for you to interpret our holy book and the principles of our faith. 98% of Americans are probably not familiar with real Islam so when you say that, your readers here are hearing something that isn't quite the full truth.

I can see why Christians might think not clarifying the differences between Quranic Jesus and the Bible's Jesus is misleading, but you must believe me when I say it is not intentional. When Muslims say they believe in Jesus it is simply because Jesus truly holds a very important place in Islam. To delineate all the differences and commonalities between the Quranic Jesus and the Biblical Jesus will take many pages of explaining, which Muslims can certainly try to do, but, unless asked, I'm not sure why they would. It's time consuming and presumptuous to think anyone is interested in knowing that much about the Quranic Jesus. If they are, I would assume they would inquire further.  So all they will say is that Jesus is a critical figure in Islam but he is not God as he is in the Christian faith.[/quote]

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