Saturday, August 27, 2011

Unintended Consequences

Many people in the Middle East equate the American government with Christianity. When they see Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and other prominent American Christians speak out against Islam, they do not separate that from any official positions of the US government. Keep in mind that in many countries in the Middle East, the church and state are not separate as they are in the US. And when the US military occupies Muslim homelands, Muslims in the Middle East will naturally equate that with Christianity.

Why do Islamic extremists target America? It is not for who we are, but for what we do. It is not a tenet of Islam to hate America. Keep in mind that Islam has been around a lot longer than the United States. It is not because we are free, and allow women to drive, and vote. It is not that our culture is immoral and we allow teenagers to talk back to their parents, and girls to dress immodestly. Yes, these things are opposed by many strict Muslims, but that is not why they attack us. Switzerland has all these same issues, yet are not being attacked by the Islamic terrorists. No, it is our foreign policy and our continued meddling in the Middle East that causes the radicals to hate and attack us. People like Osama bin Laden have used this sentiment, and tied it together with religion, to sway the public against us.

When the President of the United States refers to the War on Terror as a "crusade," as President George W. Bush did on September 11th, 2001, the Muslim world sees that as an extension of the long, violent history between Christianity and Islam.

Our history of interference in the Middle East comes from well before September 11th, 2001, and even prior to the first Gulf War. In 1953, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by US and British intelligence agencies. In 1979, Americans began working with anti-communist rebels in Afghanistan in their conflict with the Soviet Union. These same rebels used our training and weapons years later against us. It has been argued that our drone strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia have inadvertently killed more civilians than the terrorists we are targeting.

The unintended consequences of our interventionist American foreign policy, is that millions upon millions of Arab and Persian Muslims have a negative view of Christianity. It is very difficult to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people who believe that Christians want to invade and occupy Muslim homelands and kill Muslims. It has been claimed that Islam is the fasting growing religion in the world. Depending on how you define that, and how you look at the statistics, it could very well be true. As a Christian, I want more people to come to Christ, including Muslims.

Some interesting facts.
1. Christianity is legal in Iran, and in fact there is a requirement that Christians have representation in the Iranian Parliament.
2. Arabic speaking Christians use the word "Allah" for God.
3. Apostasy is illegal in many Muslim countries. It is illegal for a Christian in these countries to convert to Islam, and vice versa.

I ask you to pray for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Muslim people. I ask that you support politicians and candidates who will help change our destructive foreign policy which makes the spread of the Gospel that much more difficult to achieve. And give thanks to God, that even though we continue to sabotage ourselves in this manner, that He is powerful and loving and wise. He will continue to change people's hearts and bring them to Him.