My Muslim Brothers

"Salaam Alaikum" he said as he spotted me, lost, confused, but surprisingly calm. Idris, the kindly mosque manager, is a short smiley man that is quite possibly the friendliest man I've ever met. As we talked, he must have dashed off almost a dozen times to help a sister or brother, hearing prayer requests and checking to make sure everything was ready for the service. He did not abandon me to myself. A constant stream of people greeted me in peace and invited me onto the prayer floor with them. As the call to prayer went up I found myself being lifted up out of the mosque, carried on the wings of the song to the ears of Allah. Perhaps I didn't go anywhere, perhaps it was God that came down? Anyway, an African man beside me guided me through the prayers and saved me from the humiliation of ignorance. Charity, the kindness of hospitality was sent my way from everyone I met all wrapped up in the request and promise, Salaam Alaikum (peace be with you). After the service, I met Yusuf, a young Irish Canadian who had given a stirring sermon on community and race relations that afternoon. He told me how Islam had saved his life. He had grown up in a nominally Roman Catholic family but had spent most of his time on the streets getting into trouble. "Islam just answered all my questions" he said. I could tell he had found profound peace, and I rejoiced with him.

As I scrolled through Facebook drinking my coffee this morning I saw yet more posts about the ongoing conflict in Syria and Iraq. Yet another list of the horrors committed by ISIS insurgent. Yet another belligerent demand to "talk about Islam honestly". So that's what I want to do. Let's talk about Islam honestly.

How does anybody begin to talk about a global religion, never mind somebody like me; a student of Christian theology that has never encountered anything other than Christian thought? I think there are several ways. You can of course turn to the textual sources, though, as a student of Christian theology, I know that this can be plagued by centuries old interpretive questions. You can turn to experts, though as someone who is foreign to this field of study, I'm not entirely sure which experts are relevant. If I wanted to know about Christianity for example, I would probably get a very different account of the faith from a Mennonite than from a Russian Orthodox priest. In global religions, there are incredible amounts of variance. Finally, you can enter into relationship with people who have been shaped and formed by this religion from birth. Thus, my visit to Winnipeg Central Mosque.

When I arrived, there was a camera crew from one of the many story hungry outlets in town. There had been talk that day of the discovery that one of the ISIS extremists had ties to the Winnipeg area and they wanted a reaction from the leaders at the mosque. When the cameras left, Idris turned exhaustedly to me and said, "They come like this so often, and there is nothing I can do to explain that we are not in any way connected to ISIS. Islam is a religion of peace, why are we being held accountable for the actions of these barbarous heretics?" We talked for a couple more hours and he graciously answered even my most naive questions. I began to see that Islam, like Christianity, has bred many different schools of interpretation. It is far too simplistic to find a proof text in the Qu'aran that we find objectionable and then derive a normative ethics for this global (for the most part peaceful) religion. The actions of Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, and ISIS are condemned by the mainstream of Islamic orthodoxy. In the same way the Christian Church condemns the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch trials and Westboro Baptist church, so the Islamic community condemns its radical elements as well.

Islam has given the world many great gifts, beautiful architecture, stunning literature and art, advanced science and philosophy, and above all, a people who are formed by the practice of giving and receiving peace to one another on a daily basis. Jesus taught us that by people's fruit you would know who they really are, and in the hospitality and love that I discovered at Winnipeg Central mosque, I saw the face of Christ.

Let's have an honest talk about Islam. But if we're going to do that, we should probably invite Muslims to the table with us.

Salaam Alaikum.