J.R. Briggs

Love your Muslim as yourself

May 6, 2010

• Tweet

Recently, I’ve been pondering the essential and foundational question “Who is my neighbor?” Maybe it was the fact that I read the story of the Good Samaritan recently. Or maybe because I’ve been thinking about my neighborhood a lot lately. I’m not sure.

But I’m glad I’m thinking about my neighbor – not just the people on Derstine Avenue. But who is my global neighbor? Who is my neighbor across town? Who is my neighbor I’ve never met? Or who looks different than me? Or who may be an illegal immigrant? Or who doesn’t speak English? Who is my neighbor and how do I love him/her, even when its inconvenient?

Today in my seminary class Christianity & World Religion we explored and discussed Islam. Islam quite literally means “submission” or “submission to God’s will.” Which made me ponder, “Who is my Muslim neighbor?” This hits home because I have quite a few Muslim friends at the mosque across town, where I drop by to say hi every couple of weeks. Today’s class – along with the blog of Bob Roberts, Jr. – have challenged me to explore and lean into the natural connections that could be made by building bridges to the Muslim community – even in my own community.

Here are some interesting facts, thoughts and statistics about Islam:

• 23% of the world’s population is Muslim
• There are two Muslim sects: sunni: (88%) and shia: (10-12%). Iraq is predominantly Sunni, Iran is predominantly Shia.
• There are between 1.3 to 5 million people in the US (approximately 0.6% of US population)
• Nearly 2/3 of Muslims in the US are foreign-born.
• There are 1,029 mosques with half of them built since 1980.
• There is one God – Allah. There is no God but Allah, immaterial and invisible, gracious and merciful, sovereign and just, knowing all things and creator of the universe.
• Allah’s messenger was Mohammed. He was born almost 600 years after the birth of Jesus. When Mohammed’s name is vocalized it is always followed by the phrase “Peace be upon him.”
• The Qur’an speaks of the prophets Adam, Noah, Moses, Elisha, Elijah, Abraham, Jonah, Jesus – and even John the Baptist – but Mohammed is the most important.
• 90% of mosques in the US have members of Asian, African-American and Arab ethnicity.

Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself.

So what does it mean to love your Muslim as yourself?

Posted in: Uncategorized