It is easy to yield to prejudice when we are confronted with something difficult to understand or contrary to what we expect. Such prejudice does no one any good. It only reinforces inaccurate stereotypes and prolongs and deepens misconceptions. To understand Islam truly we must talk and listen with as much fairness and objectivity as we can muster. Recognising our misconceptions about Islam is a valuable first step in establishing good communication; then we’ll get opportunities to share Christ.

What then are the common misconceptions? Here are four important ones:

The extent of fanaticism

First, some Christians imagine that all Muslims are extremists, terrorists, or intolerant. There is a tendency to view them all as religious fanatics instead of the normal, pious people they often are. I think there are three main reasons for this.

Many Christians are influenced by media bias without realising that they are being given an incomplete picture. Most Muslims are not violent. Within Islam there are peaceful groups as well as violent ones, spiritually motivated groups as well as politically motivated ones. Both peaceful and violent groups legitimately find their authority in the Qur’an and Hadith and are considered pious means of spreading Islam.

Many don’t understand the political side of Islam. Christians tend to be ignorant of Muhammad’s role as a political ruler in Medina and the enormous amount of political teaching and law in the Qur’an and Hadith. Muhammad had a political agenda in a way that Christ did not.

Although Jesus grew up under an oppressive imperialistic power, Western Christians don’t know the experience of being dominated by another political or economic power. They find it hard to appreciate the hurt much of the West’s involvement in the Middle East has caused Muslims or understand the frustration that fuels much of the violence the extremists commit. Western Christians often don’t understand poverty and oppression either because their lives have been relatively free from injustice and want.

The place of Muhammad

Second, many Christians don’t understand Muhammad’s place in Islam. This leads to two kinds of misconception; the first exaggerates the prophet’s importance, the second underestimates it.

Some Christians, out of ignorance, tend to think that Muhammad holds the same general place in Islam that Jesus holds in Christianity. In fact Muslims don’t see Muhammad as the founder of Islam. Rather, they see Islam as the one religion that all prophets proclaimed, Muhammad simply being the last prophet. This is why the term ‘Mohammedanism’ is offensive to Muslims and is more properly replaced with ‘Islam’.

On the other hand Christians may not understand the place of affection and devotion he occupies and so fail to appreciate the hurt defaming remarks cause. Muslims see Muhammad as the last and greatest of the prophets and so give him the greatest amount of respect that they give to any man. It is similar to the hurt we feel when Jesus is referred to as ‘just a good teacher’, ‘just a man’ or even ‘just a prophet’. We need to understand the emotional investment in others’ beliefs and be sensitive to them.

The role of politics

Thirdly, many Christians have misconceptions about the roles of politics and religion in Islam.

Some Christians believe that Islam is spread exclusively by the sword, while failing to appreciate that much of the spread of Islam was through commerce and Sufi missionary endeavour. This is especially true in Asia. Western Christians tend to know more about the wars with Islam that occurred around the Mediterranean and in Europe.

Also, many Christians are ignorant of the political nature of Islam so they think it should not be involved in politics today. Muslims see political means as being appropriate for accomplishing their goals because they see religion as embracing the whole of life. Islamic law embraces not only personal piety but family law, civil law, and criminal law as well.

Christians also forget that, for much of Church history, Christians also saw religion and politics as closely related. Only in recent years has this intimacy been overturned.

The cultural heritage

Finally, many Christians see Islamic culture as backward and unrefined.

Christians are often ignorant of Islam’s rich cultural heritage. They don’t know that Muslims have extensive bodies of literature in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu or that Islam has a long tradition in architecture, calligraphy, poetry, philosophy and science. Like the West in general, Christians often tend to judge other nations by their level of technological progress.

Christians are often ignorant of the influences Islam has had on our own culture. In fact our knowledge of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy came through Arabic translations of these texts. Much of our science and especially our mathematics, medicine and astronomy drew on Medieval Islamic sources. Similarly, all of our fine arts have been profoundly influenced by Muslim tradition; from painting and literature to architecture and music. Debates and discussions in theology have taken place between Islamic and Christian scholars for hundreds of years.

Breaking barriers

As we gain a realistic view of the place of fanaticism, understand better the role of Muhammad, see the close link between religion and politics and appreciate better the rich cultural heritage of Islam; we will find the barriers coming down, and people being more willing to hear what we have to say about Christ.