A preacher of my acquaintance was recently asked whether Islam is evil. Being a blunt-spoken sort and not one for pulling his punches, he said, “Yes.” I can’t help thinking that it wasn’t a very helpful answer, in part because it isn’t a very helpful question; it can mean several different things, covering multiple areas of interest and concern.For instance, one might consider this question theologically: is Islam, considered as a body of beliefs about God, evil? As a Christian, I would say that Islam is a religion which preaches a form of works righteousness, thus encouraging people to put their faith in their own efforts rather than in Jesus Christ; as such, it’s as evil as any other such religion, including a number of things which generally pass themselves off as forms of Christianity. This is not to say that there’s no real difference between a given stream of Islam and your typical American church preaching “moralistic therapeutic deism,” but the core theological issue would seem to be the same in both cases. One may call specific versions of Islam evil—the jihadists who plan terrorist attacks and preach suicide bombing as a form of religious martyrdom are clearly teaching something evil—but it seems to me that you can’t call Islam as a whole evil, on a theological level, without saying the same about some ostensibly Christian preachers. (To some, that might be a deterrent to calling Islam evil; to others, it might prompt a re-evaluation of some American religious leaders.)That said, I’m pretty sure that the person who asked that question didn’t have that concern in mind; I suspect that their interest was less theological than political. We might therefore ask, Is Islam necessarily the cause of political evil? I know there are those who are pessimistic and would say “yes” to this because they believe that Islam naturally tends to despotism; but I believe this question is properly answered in the negative. One, even if one agrees that there can be no such thing as a healthy Islamic democracy, modern Western democracy isn’t the only good way to run a country; Morocco, as a constitutional monarchy that has seen significant positive developments over the last couple decades, offers another possible way forward. Two, there are Muslim thinkers at work developing a particular Muslim theological and philosophical groundwork for democracy, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to declare their work a failure before it even has the chance to bear fruit. This is especially true given that we have in Iraq a potential cradle for Islamic democracy, and early signs of its success are encouraging.At this point, someone might object by pointing to evil Islamic governments and leaders, and certainly I have no great opinion of any of the rulers of Iran; but to say that there are evil people who carry the label “Muslim” is not to say even that all Muslims are evil, let alone that Islam itself is evil. After all, there are evil people who claim to be Christian, too; the first person who comes to my mind isn’t a political figure, but Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, who was an elder in his Lutheran church in Wichita. It’s a severe logical stretch at best to assume that because a person who professes a given faith is evil, that faith must be the cause of their evil.The bottom line: I believe Christianity is true, which logically entails the belief that Islam is false. I think it’s perfectly fair to say that there are streams of Islamic tradition, such as Wahhabism, which are bad news. A sizeable percentage of the world’s terrorists are Muslim, and while I suspect a lot of them (perhaps most of them) would still be pretty malignant people if they’d been raised as Buddhists or Baptists, the fact remains that they both justify and promote their terrorist activity on the grounds of their Muslim beliefs; I think it’s foolish in the extreme to pretend not to see that. But all of that said, it seems to me that treating Islam (and Muslims in general) as if the likes of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al’Zawahiri are representative of what it necessarily means to be Muslim is like holding up Fred Phelps and saying, “This is what a Christian looks like.” A more nuanced evaluation, I think, would be preferable.
I’m curious what you think, in Islam, is necessarily “works righteousness”? I ask because in conversation with Muslims (who I guess I’d describe as ‘moderate’ and at least somewhat Westernized) I got a very different impression.
I’ll hold back other comments along these lines until I have a better idea of what you mean.
I’m curious as to what you mean by your question, honestly; I’m not sure how to answer you. At the most basic level, it’s simple enough–Islam is a religion which is not centered on salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (which is one reason why the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Bailey stresses the importance of proper interpretation of Luke 15); but I’m not sure where you’re going with this.
Well, ok, its obvious that Islam is not about salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. That sort of goes without saying. I wouldn’t be prepared to say that Islam is not about God’s grace, however. I haven’t spoken to a Muslim who talks about earning God’s grace.
I mean, if your standard for “works righteousness” is a lack of faith in Jesus Christ, then that settles it there. Everything but Christianity is “works righteousness”. But if by “works righteousness” you mean that salvation is earned, that is probably true of some religions and not true of others.
No, Muslims don’t talk about earning God’s grace, because that concept doesn’t exist in Islam. Speaking only for my own experience and studies (since I certainly haven’t talked to everyone in the world), I’ve never run across anyone who believed in salvation by grace rather than by works who didn’t believe that that salvation came by Christ alone.
That’s why, as Dr. Bailey notes, the popular interpretation of the so-called Parable of the Prodigal Son, that the younger son repented in the far country, is such a problem in dialogues with Muslim scholars–they hold it up as proof that even Christianity teaches that one must earn God’s favor.